The Handbook
by cutemiko4ever
Summary: AU. Q: Does using the How to Win a Girl's Heart List written on the boy's locker room really work? Test Subject: Kagome, the brainiac. Data Collector: Inuyasha, the unfortunate one. Info: Miroku and Koga, the sidekicks. Conclusion? In progress. Fluff.
1. Chapter 1

AU/OOC story. Research Question: Does using the How to Win a Girl's Heart List written on the boy's locker room really work on any type of girl? Test Subject: Kagome, brainiac extraordinaire. Chosen Data Collector: Inuyasha, the unfortunate one. Background Info/Conclusion: Koga and Miroku, the sidekicks. Fluff and nonsense alert.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Warning people, when I read this, it didn't even make any sense to me!

**Prologue: The Official 'HTWAGH' Guide**

It should be easy really.

You know, getting her to date him.

Using a bunch of 'steps' written on a bathroom stall no one uses and eventually, break up with her.

He read it and he even used some of the stuff written on there. And he knew it would work like a charm already. It was sorta different this time around though, he didn't like this particular girl in that way and he barely even spoken three words to her.

…

Okay, it's not like he didn't feel_ bad_ about it. He wasn't as heartless as people made him out to be, but he had his pride and dignity at stake here, once Inuyasha Takahashi decides to do something, Inuyasha Takahashi doesn't back out. He was thinking about making her like him just enough to be boyfriend/girlfriend but not enough that he would break her beyond repair when he eventually reveals like this was all, in fact, a ruse.

He's still working on the mechanics of that though. There's a very thin line in there and so far, he hasn't found it yet.

The girl is Kagome Higurashi.

Who else really?

Some minor info: Kagome was pretty average. Black hair and brown eyes and she's short too. Not really the kind of girl you would look at twice.

She also had a guard dog for a best friend… Sango was it? Inuyasha vaguely remembered that that was the name of the girl Miroku was obsessing at currently. Great, that should make the task even easier. That was complete sarcasm right there. Their relationship consists of Miroku consistently trying to grope her and Sango slapping him (or knocking him out, whichever works best for the situation). Sango's not really a big fan of him and his friends at the moment. And Inuyasha's thinking Kagome would follow Sango's advice regarding anything.

Another question the readers may be asking.

Why her?

She's nothing spectacular.

Mostly just because she was passing by right at that moment they decided to try it.

It was all written down on the boy's locker room. The school officials never checked the boy's locker room ever. There were over seventy listed down on the first stall, but they knew they weren't going to do all of them. Most looked ridiculous that they would never even try it.

Come on, they were the popular guys at school, of course they had girlfriends. It would be like a crime for them not to.

Inuyasha glanced down once again at the crumpled piece of paper on his desk, his gold eyes darting back and forth to the girl on the farthest seat on the right and back to the paper with chicken scratches for handwriting. It was two pieces of notebook paper stapled together. The front page saying 'The Official HTWAGH Guide' and the next one saying this:

_Welcome dear readers,_

_As of now, you are reading the first page of the official 'HTWAGH' guide made by yours truly and two of my very dear friends Dog Wonder and Wolf Monger. Oh, I'm the 'Gorgeous violet-eyed hunk' by the way. You are probably a beginner if you're reading this, so we'll start out with some easy steps. _

_Since we are only testing this, we don't guarantee that you actually will get the girl. And if you don't, please blame our data collector, Dog Wonder, for screwing up the test. Since it is a proven thing and we're just doing this to actually prove it._

_To make it appear completely random, the girl we've chosen for the experiment is the first girl who walked right passed by us the moment we decided to do this._

_PS: This is based on and inspired by the list on the boy's locker room at Shikon High School, room 110. BUT, instead of filling you in all at once, I'll gradually explain it through the... er, book. We'll be spending a lot of time together, eh? _

_Let us begin…._

_Rule, Experiment, Example, Note, Step… (Dude, we should totally work on this later) #1 _

_Compliment the 'Girl' _

_What kind of girl doesn't like to be complimented? __This is the easiest rule, experiment, example, whatever. If she doesn't respond positively then 'Girl' is not human at all. Actually this doesn't even count as a rule, it's like a fact. It's a known thing and – _

… _Are girls even really human? *Squiggly eyes right here*_

If this was an anime show, a huge sweat would appear at the side of his head right now. They couldn't even decide on what to call the steps (he pitched in the step idea so he was going to use that one). Was he really friends with these people right here? Or to be more specific, Miroku Hoshi?

"Do front and back," Mr. Imoto said, snapping his attention back to reality. The teacher was handing out the papers to the front row to pass out to the people at the back. "Talk to me after class if you want some extra credit worksheets because we don't have enough time. Remember, I only give out extra credit once in a blue moon, so seize the opportunity."

He groaned inwardly when he looked the paper over, the numbers are not even making any sort of sense at all.

Calculus is kicking his ass.

* * *

Inuyasha should've known Higurashi would take that extra credit bait. That girl inhaled knowledge like freaking clam chowder.

He tapped his shoes once, twice somewhere around thirty times.

Then she came out. He practically turned to stone when she turned the other way.

"Higurashi," he called out before she got too far. Practically known her his entire life and he's still at the last name basis. He and Kagome had been classmates ever since preschool, he never knew one class that he had without Higurashi in it his entire life.

So like any other polite girls in school, Kagome stopped to look at him dead center in the eye.

Now, he hasn't actually even looked at her face to face before. He realized nervously that she kinda resembled Kikyo. Well, not really in way. Kikyo was more ice princess than nice next door neighbor.

Minor background info, Kikyo was the biggest crush he ever had and the only thing he ever got knots in his stomach for. Well that's not true considering he got knots when he has pop quizzes all the time.

But now he's on his way to add this girl on to the list too. Kikyo, pop quizzes, and Kagome Higurashi.

Inuyasha wondered if they were related somehow. Cousins, he guessed?

"Yeah?" She raised her eyebrows. Inuyasha mentally slammed his head against the wall, he didn't realize he had been staring at her for almost two minutes. "Do you need anything?"

"Homework," he blurted out.

It wasn't his fault he had a puppy crush on Kikyo.

"What about it?" she inquired.

"Do you have any extra extra credit worksheets?" Extra _extra _credit?

If Kagome found that weird, she didn't show it. Instead she just shook her head. "I don't, but you can go back there, I'm sure Mr. Imoto has a few more copies."

"Um, yeah, yeah, thanks." He bobbed his head. Repeatedly. He was starting to see red dots.

She was about to walk away again before he called her name.

"You look…" He can just imagine a huge hole swallowing him. "Nice today," he finished lamely.

Her eyes widened incredulously, but smiled nonetheless. "Thanks… I guess. You don't look too shabby yourself."

Before he could get another word in, she turned around and proceeded to walk towards her locker where Sango was waiting.

Real smooth, Takahashi.

No one would believe you're the most popular guy in school now.

* * *

"You look nice," Miroku deadpanned. "That's all you had to say to her?"

"Not really, I also asked her if she had any extra extra credit worksheets." Inuyasha slammed his head against the table, for real this time.

Miroku shook his head dramatically. "Dude, you're totally ruining the plan!"

He lifted his head. "We don't even have a plan!" Inuyasha growled.

His best friend pouted. "You could've at least made your compliment more elaborate… like your hair is like the shining night sky or whatever."

Inuyasha glared at the boy with violet eyes. "No one _ever _says that," he said. "And I froze." _Because she looked remarkbly like the girl I'll never ever get._ There is no way he's ever going to say that out loud.

Miroku grinned anyways. "Are you still going through this?"

"Of course I am," he answered.

Koga whistled before gobbling down five french fries. "I just have a feeling that you picked the wrong girl."

"We didn't pick her," Inuyasha continued, "We said that we would try it on the first girl that walked pass by us."

"Wasn't it Mrs. Hirasagi the lunch lady?"

"Technically," Miroku pointed out. "Mrs. Hirasagi is more of an old woman rather than a girl."

The three boys accepted that explanation and shut out the subject

"Seriously though, we've known Kagome for a long time and I have never even seen her wear skirts before, or even go to a party. And as far as I know, she's never had a boyfriend either. She's a tough cookie to crack."

"Isn't it supposed to be tough walnut to crack? How would you even crack a cookie?"

A vein popped in Koga's forehead. "Shut up."

"So what?" Miroku said. "Lots of girls here have never had boyfriends before."

"I think that it's going to be really hard… harder than some people."

"Are you saying I can't do it?" Inuyasha frowned. He never _ever_ liked to be mocked.

"Another thing I find weird is how she's related to Kikyo."

"Is she really?" Inuyasha asked. He tried not too sound a little bit _too_ much curious but his two friends knew what he actually meant.

Miroku blinked. "You didn't know?" He looked flabbergasted. "You had a crush on that girl for two years and you had no idea that Kagome was her younger cousin?"

"Obviously not," Koga answered for him. "It's not like he had a chance anyway, Kikyo dated that weird dude, Naraku, who had spider obsession all throughout her junior and senior year. It's kinda weird that you're trying to score with the younger cousin of your unrequited love."

Inuyasha frowned. "It's not like I'm going to marry her."

Miroku's fist slammed on the table. "Oh my god, I heard that they're planning to get married! My mom is friends with Kagome's mom who heard from her older brother that they're planning to get married this summer and planned their honeymoon to be somewhere in Bermuda. It's hard to imagine what their kids would even look like!"

"He's okay," Koga said. "Creepy as hell, but okay."

"Do you guys realize that you two gossip worse than actual girls?" Inuyasha said dryly, cutting their conversation entirely.

"Er.." Miroku and Koga immediately returned to eating their own respective foods and stayed quiet.

Inuyasha groaned. Was he actually friends with these two idiots?

Sadly, the answer was yes.

"Can we just work on step number two?"

* * *

That's it for now, folks!

BTW, I just made this for fun!

I'm also sorry for the grammatical errors in there. Commas are not my friends and I don't have a BETA reader.

Thank you for reading 'The Handbook' although I'll probably think of a better title later on and I hope you enjoyed it!

R&R!


	2. Chapter 2

Hey you guys!

Thanks for reading chapter one!

Hahah, it makes me giddy just thinking about it.

**Chapter 2:** Good Chemistry? Pfft...

_The list is widely believed to be dated back all the way to when the school was first built, and was gradually added on by other teenagers throughout the years. Me, Dog Wonder, and Wolf Monger had also contributed to this wonderful piece of history about a year or two years ago._

_Ahem, for those who are looking for results on the first step, Dog Wonder screwed up. We're guessing he didn't do the suave moves the 'Girl' is looking for so she just turned the other way. Okay, we're not guessing. We KNOW he failed epically, he even said so himself... He'll probably smack me so I'd better be far, far away when he reads this too... Anyway..._

_Don't be discouraged though! Not everyone acts the same and if you really want to date your current infatuation, you MUST endure some hardships. _

_Yes, it's true._

…

_Believe me._

_Ahem, ahem..._

_We skipped the second step on the list (which was 'Be Nice') and moved on to the third one. _

'_Carry her books for her'_

_It'll show how considerate you are and it'll also test if the chemistry is right._

_If 'Girl' doesn't mind carrying it on her own, walk her to her class anyways and make gradual conversations. It's short, doesn't need a lot of words and then Ta-dah! You're by her classroom. Now, the only thing you need to do is to walk back to your own classroom. _

_Another question to ask yourself: 'Is she worth the walk?'_

_If not then abandon this operation NOW._

_PS: If you have our… er, teacher who's a complete spaz about tardiness, it's either sprint or die._

_

* * *

_

"You know," Miroku started the next day, handing Inuyasha the new piece of notebook paper. "We can use this as our science project."

Koga turned to him. "What science project?" he asked sharply.

"I heard from Yayoi that Mrs. Asagi is planning to give us a science project," he said slowly. A maple leaf darting through the air almost pierced his eye but he managed to swipe his hand (cough in a totally nongay fashion cough) before it did any major damage. The weather really is bipolar, Miroku thought grimly. "What are we even doing outside?"

Koga ignored him. "How does she know?"

"Mrs. Asagi is her mom."

Koga's jaw dropped. "Since when?"

"Since she was born? What kind of question is that, man?" Miroku said exasperatedly. "_Everybody_ knows that Yayoi is her daughter! Where were you for the past 3 years?"

"I didn't!" he cried. "I went out with her too! That's probably why that old hag hates me!"

Inuyasha interjected, eyes reading the paper still. "She doesn't hate you."

"Yeah, she does," he said. "I have a stupid D in her class."

"Maybe that's because you failed half of our tests already."

"Well who gives a pop quiz three days after school starts?"

"Do you really think she cares?" Miroku said dryly.

A pause. "Good point."

"Oh yeah, your current infatuation loathes you, doesn't she?" Inuyasha smirked.

Miroku nodded his head sadly. "I'm just getting some on the pain out there," he pouted. "My english teacher says it will make the reader more sympathetic? Is that even the right word? Because they'll know that they're not the only ones who's going through it."

"Anyway, I doubt Mrs. Asagi would let us to our little 'game' as research," Inuyasha said again, tucking away the folded paper in his pocket.

"A volcano would be a good one," Koga recommended.

"A volcano?" Miroku repeated incredulously. "Are you insane? She would absolutely fail us if we did a stupid volcano."

"And what makes you think she would give us an A for a stupid dating guide?" Koga growled.

"It's unique," Miroku said confidently. "Come on, it's not like anybody has ever done this before in the history of Shikon High School."

"Probably because they're not as stupid as us," Inuyasha said dryly.

"Stop saying the word 'stupid', you idiots," Miroku said. "It's very offensive."

"Yeah, like idiot isn't."

Koga interrupted. "Wait, if we do decide to do this (and if she lets us), how are we even going to form the research question crap she makes us do?"

"Does following the How to Win a Girl's Heart on the boy's locker room really work on a girl?" Miroku shrugged. "Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out."

He continued. "I think we have a good case… we have the test subject, the data collector, I'm the background info, and Koga's gonna be the conclusion when we're done."

The three of them looked at each other.

"Woah, are we seriously considering this?" Inuyasha flapped his hands.

A brief moment of silence transcended, individual thoughts running through their heads.

Why not?

It's not like they can think of anything else. It's already seared in their brains.

The first bell rang and they turned to look at the main entrance. It's time for science.

* * *

"You need a new backpack." Sango eyed the worn yellow thing hanging off Kagome's back. "Why does it look so fat anyway? It looks like you're planning for a five month long hibernation."

She plopped it down on the floor. "Stop insulting my stuff!" Kagome growled. "And it's swimming stuff in there."

"I'm not insulting it," her best friend grinned. "I'm just asking. You've had that thing for what? Ten years now? Isn't it time to consider buying a new one?"

"For your information, I can get anything inside this backpack," Kagome frowned. She didn't like it when people insulted HER backpack. "Even you if I try hard enough, lady. Leave it alone."

She shuffled slightly with her locker combination and somehow managed to shove her stuff inside while Sango rested her bag against the wall. "Kinda sucks that you have it first class. You're gonna stink of chlorine the entire day."

"They only give us 25 minutes to get ready too," Kagome said. "I feel sorry for the girls who have to iron out their hair and put on makeup and everything BUT it's a lot better than soccer."

"Oh yeah," Sango agreed. "She made us play even though it was drizzling outside too. Can you believe Kari actually kneed Ayame in the gut to get that ball?"

"Ms. Hitomi didn't even give her detention," she went on. "That just proves that no matter how many times they say they don't, teachers do have favorites."

Kagome smiled. "I wonder when Ayame's going to…" She turned to look at Sango who was frozen like stone. She whipped around so fast her hair nearly slapped Kagome's face.

She blinked.

"Hey, Sango," Miroku grinned widely. He gave a friendly smile towards Kagome.

Sango sneered right beside her. "What do you want, you pervert?" she snapped, holding out her textbook like a shield.

"We're about to walk to our science class and this is the shortest way there," Miroku answered. He elbowed Inuyasha in the ribs slightly, barely enough for the two girls in front of them to notice.

"Where are you guys going?" he asked.

"I'm on my way to PE right now," Kagome replied. "Sango's towards social studies."

"Cool, Sango can I walk you there?" He had just the right face to make the puppy dog face completely irresistible.

Kagome felt the girl beside her turn even more stony. "No."

"Come on, he's just being nice," she whispered softly. "What's the harm with walking with him?"

Sango's face turned to complete shock. "Haven't you been listening to anything I said?" she hissed.

Miroku took this moment to swipe the text book out of Sango's hands. "I swear to God that I won't grope you or touch you inappropriately in the three minutes I'm walking you to your classroom."

Skeptical laughter cut short was heard from beside him. Inuyasha shook his head. "Sorry," he coughed.

"How about you?" Miroku raised his brow. "Why can't you be a gentleman and escort Lady Kagome down to PE?"

Oh, crap, he forgot about that.

"He doesn't need to walk me down there," Kagome waved a hand. "Besides, the bell's about to ring in five minutes, if he goes down there and comes back up he won't have enough time to get to class without being late."

"He can sprint," Miroku added hopefully. "It'll be a piece of cake for him."

Sango looked at them both suspiciously. "What are you-?"

The two boys communicated with their eyes. Split them from the herd, or in this case, from each other. Quickly.

"Just come on," Inuyasha ushered Kagome in one way while Miroku practically had to drag Sango the other way. "It won't be bad, Mrs. Asagi isn't really that strict when it comes to getting late to class. I even know one kid who got in thirty minutes late and she didn't even flinch."

Kagome nodded slowly. "Why are you suddenly doing this?"

Double crap. "Doing what?"

"First you told me I look nice yesterday and now you're actually escorting me to PE," Kagome said. "Don't lie, I know Mrs. Asagi's class is on the other side of the building, did you just suddenly happen to be there on a dead end?"

"Miroku really wanted to see Sango." A mental image of himself nodded satisfactorily inside his brain. Inuyasha knew the guy would come in handy someday. "And is it wrong to tell someone that they look... nice that particular day?"

They went down the stairs slowly. There were very many people rushing to get upstairs but almost none on their side.

He didn't have to be able to read minds to know she didn't entirely believe him.

"You didn't have to walk me either," she said. "This is the modern times, I doubt a weird samurai with a sword would suddenly pop out of nowhere to slice me in half."

Inuyasha smiled. "I just have a gut feeling you're the type of person who gets into trouble a lot."

She sighed but not in an offended way. "I always have people telling me that, I have no clue why."

"Which brings me to another topic," Kagome continued. "Miroku's a nice guy and everything but I think he's approaching Sango the wrong way, you should probably tell him that."

"He approaches every single girl the same way."

"I know," she said. "But you really think Sango'll respond to 'will you please bear my children'?"

"No clue," he answered back. "What I do know is that he'll wear her down in a while."

Kagome shook her head. "Believe me, he's gonna have to try harder than that."

They lapsed into a very uncomfortable silence. Okay, Inuyasha thought, this is worse than a hole swallowing him alive. His mind drew into a blank. He didn't know what to say when he was around this girl.

"So, ah," he began. "How's life treating you?"

Kagome looked at him thoughtfully. "I'm thinkin' it's gonna be a lot crazier than I expect it would be."

They both stopped in front of the girl's locker room just as the second bell rang. "Thanks for the walk," she waved at him again and opened the door.

The sudden whiff of fifty kinds of different perfumes made him step back.

So much for good chemistry.

Inuyasha groaned loudly, crossing his arms. Was it his fault? So far he screwed up two tests already (in his book, he did screw up) AND those were the easiest ones. Was it somehow different that he was following a piece of paper now instead of natural male instincts?

He paused mid thought. Male instincts?

Fine, whatever.

And just like Miroku says, it's either sprint or die.

* * *

Inuyasha was asked (ordered) to stand in front of class by Mrs. Asagi and formally ask permission to join in their discussion.

"One more time and you get two hour detention with me," she smiled sweetly, evilly. He can practically see shark teeth and huge demon horns growing out of her bushy head. That woman is just pure _evil_. You probably wouldn't think so since you just met her, but really, nothing pleases that woman more than seeing her students pee their pants when she slams forty item pop quizzes that you can only do for _fifteen minutes_ on your table a day after you went through the lesson.

He sent a death glare behind her back. "Yes, ma'am, nothing would please me more than annoying you for two whole hours."

"Now WHACK! Back to what I was saying." She slammed her meter stick on one of the tables. Hiroshi Nakamura choked on his gum and the other person on their table almost fell out of her chair. "Hand it over."

Her small evil bunny eyes settled on the paper Miroku was clutching. "Hand over what?" he asked slowly, sneakily trying to place the airplane in between his notebook

"Give it or I'll send you to the principal's office."

Miroku snuck a glance at Koga who just shrugged his shoulders. It's not a big deal then, Inuyasha thought, usually they would try harder than that if it contains… um, serious info.

"Haven't you guys ever heard of cellphones?" he mouthed to both of them. He pretty much expected them to cuss at him.

"I already told you no passing notes," she sighed, unfolding the piece of paper and prepared to read it out loud. "'What happened to your face?'"

All 34 eyes turned to Miroku Hoshi who buried his head in his arms on the table.

"I think the red hand print on his cheek speaks for itself," Mrs. Asagi said thoughtfully.

* * *

"Are you serious?" Mrs. Asagi's eyes flitted back and forth between the two boys.

"Yeah," Koga answered simply.

"Where's Miroku?" Inuyasha murmured.

"He's outside," he said. "He didn't want to come in."

"What?" Inuyasha hissed. "This is _his_ idea!"

Koga shrugged and jerked his head towards their teacher again

Thankfully, she was still in the zone of disbelief. "Okay… you guys might want to have a backup plan if this doesn't work out the way you want it to."

"How would you feel about a volcano?" Koga asked.

"If you do the baking soda and vinegar volcano I would fail you hands down," Mrs. Asagi leaned back on her chair. "Come on you three, you're high school students, elementary kids can do that. Doing a research _about_ a volcano would be a lot better."

They nodded their head solemnly and prepared to leave. Really, they didn't want to stay inside this confined death trap of a classroom unless they absolutely had to.

"By the way," Mrs. Asagi called out as Inuyasha turned the door knob. "Have you guys taken in account the feelings of the girl you're pulling this gig on?"

* * *

Does it feel like I'm rushing? I'm planning to make their relationship go reeeaalllly reeaalllly slow (just to warn people but that may change) but the whole chapter itself feels like a marathon. And I know, totally unrealistic that a teacher would even LET them do THAT for a science project but hey, this is my world hahahah. That's one of the reasons why I love writing.

Pardon the mistakes... I'm gonna get a beta reader one of these days hopefully. Please feel free to point them out, I would really appreciate it alot because I wanna improve!

Oh yeah, happy belated Halloween! I'm still snarfing down the left over candy!

Thanks for the reviews and reading the second chapter!

R&R!


	3. Chapter 3

Just realized I forgot to put a disclaimer on the last chapter so here it is:

Disclaimer: Don't own anything! Woot!

Thanks for reading the last chapter!

To** Reneviere07**, one of the greatest people in the world and whose birthday is a day before mine! Belated Happy Birthday!

**Chapter 3: **Plot Holes

"… And that's how you get X…" he scribbled down a bunch of alien doodles on the chalkboard. "… which is 54."

He turned expectantly, to his class for a little sign of confirmation that his brilliant (coughnotcough) students at least understood _something._

_..._

They should really do something about the crickets outside his window.

Mr. Imoto placed his chalk on the table calmly. "You didn't get it, did you?" he said dryly.

"Maybe… you should do number 3 on the homework, too." Jin Asakura and Inuyasha shared a hopeful look.

"Yeah, you already did number 1 and 2." Yayoi Asagi batted her eyelashes from the other side of the room.

Inuyasha couldn't help squinting his eyes every time he looked at her. How can a hot brunette be related to the 'Ogre'? You can barely see the resemblance between her and his science teacher when they stood side to side.

That was such a twisted mistake by nature.

Mr. Imoto took his mug off the table and took a big sip. "Nice try. I'll give you the rest of the period to work on the homework."

Synchronized whimpers enter here.

The clocked ticked by so on and so forth. Mr. Imoto's math classes was always declared as the one who had the most frequent clock watchers.

Inuyasha looked upward. The stink of sweat, chalk and chlorine with a dash of overused cotton candy and fruit perfume was really grating his nerves. Yeah, his classmates HAD to come from PE and he HAD to sit in the front, where the powder coming from Mr. Imoto's eraser was most likely to hit him square in the face.

Stupid sensitive nose.

"Oh and by the way," the older man said, plopping down on his cushioned swirly chair. "You kids have another spirit assembly right after lunch."

Another round of even louder synchronized groans..

"You may complain," Mr. Imoto took another gulp. "But you're still going anyways, deal with it."

"Great pep talk, Mr. Imoto." Jin Asakura glanced at the clock, and so did the rest of them. "Why do we even have spirit assemblies almost twice a month? It's not like it's even doing anything to boost the school's preppy power."

"Yeah," Yayoi chimed in again. Swear to all the gods up there, it's like bells ringing when that girl talks. Too bad her mom's voice isn't like that. "We can, like, have it just once every three months, you know, like a _normal _school? It's a win, win situation. The student council and staff wouldn't have to do so much work, and _we_ wouldn't have to suffer the torture of being there."

"Bravo Yayoi." Jin clapped his hands. "I never would've had the guts to say that out loud! To Mr. Imoto nonetheless!"

Mr. Imoto slammed a flat hand on the desk. Everyone looked up sharply. "Focus on your work."

All heads immediately bowed down, though not necessarily doing any work. Teachers are so dense sometimes when it comes to fake writing and fake paying attention.

Seconds passed by slowly and many, many, many sighs filled up those moments too. Mr. Imoto got up from his chair quietly and fiddled with the blue chalk, writing yet another batch of alien numbers on the board.

Inuyasha suddenly felt a coil in his stomach, like some sort of a sixth sense warning sign. He glanced at his balding teacher while keeping his head down. He was scanning the room and our hero had a feeling he knew what he was thinking. He gritted his teeth. Not him, not him, not him, not him, not…

"Takahashi."

Him.

Damn it.

"Yes, sir?" he drawled.

Thick, dark bifocals glinted evilly. He can practically see the sadistic smile creeping up his face. "Answer this problem and I'll knock off fifteen problems on tonight's homework BUT if you have it wrong I'll add fifteen more. Is that a deal?"

Inuyasha clicked his jaw shut. This is the final proof that all the teachers at Shikon High loathed him. This was complete sabotage! He knows he's going to fail solving that! Isn't the string of D's enough evidence to show that he's going to screw up?

Twenty years from now he'll come back as a successful business guy with tons of money and laugh at Mr. Imoto, a bald sixty year old still teaching at this stupid high school.

The teacher tossed him the chalk and tapped the board.

It's not like he can say no, with the hopeful looks of his classmates filling his line of vision. Haven't they considered that there's a 99.9% chance that this will not end the way they expect it to be?

The screetch of his desk moving took forever. Inuyasha gave Mr. Imoto a glare as he passed him by.

Is there a possibility of stabbing Mr. Imoto with a really sharp chalk and getting away with it scathe free?

* * *

"We're going to have a spirit assembly today."

Inuyasha's eyebrows drew together and bit down an apple, pretending it was his stupid Calculus teacher's intestines. "We have spirit assemblies almost every four weeks, man. It's not something new."

"Can somebody please say how lame our high school is?" Miroku slinked down on one of the chairs. "We're actually having a _spirit _assembly, for cryin' out loud. Do you guys wanna skip?"

"There's a new taco place three blocks away," Inuyasha agreed.

"I heard their burritos are bomb," Miroku grinned. "That commercial _looks_-"

"Can't," Koga mumbled shortly.

He frowned. "We can always leave you here if you want."

Koga shook his head and glared at Miroku. "Didn't you guys know that they installed security cameras already? Anybody who gets caught getting out without permission can get suspended."

"What?"

"It's like we're living in the prehistoric times," Miroku blew a breath. "Shikon High's been here for almost, what, eighty years? And they just recently installed freaking security cameras."

"So we can't... ditch anymore?" Inuyasha cringed. He hated school assemblies. Preppy over achievers, teachers, people… it's like everything he hated all in one, crammed room. It's suffocating. It wasn't like they were the only ones who got away before, the old principal was such a push over it wasn't even funny.

"Not unless you want your parents to rip your head off."

"Old lady with the eye patch is sure one hell of principal," Miroku grinned. "She's scarier than my mom."

"I don't know about your mom, but yes, she is scary," Koga said. "There was a rumor she used to be a drill sergeant in another country."

"That's actually not hard to believe," he replied. "And she even stabbed a guy's toe with her stick for being late!"

"Well, I know my mom and dad will skin me alive and then murder me if they think I'm failing my classes, who knows what they'll do when

"There's a good side to every… cloud. I dunno, there's supposed to be a saying about that but I can't remember." Miroku turned to Inuyasha again. "Kagome's gonna be there."

He looked unimpressed. "You kinda expect that from her," he grumbled. "Why does every single one of our conversations involve Higurashi in it anyway?"

"Because your, and ours for that matter, entire existence will revolve around her for an infinite amount of time."

"It's a good opportunity to test another one," Koga said. He took out his cell phone and showed the photo of the bathroom stall. "We have our number three right here. It's the perfect place, a Shikon high school assembly. Something interesting is bound to happen."

"Hold on." Miroku looked as if remembering something suddenly. "You actually just brought up a good subject. How do we know if it did work?"

"What work?"

"Our dating guide."

"When she agrees to go out with me, I guess?" Inuyasha said distractedly, fiddling with an orange. "Hence the 'dating guide'?"

"But 'dating guide' doesn't generally mean falling in love," Koga added. "Inuyasha's right, it can stop just when Kagome agrees to go out with him. Isn't the whole purpose of doing this is to see if it using the guide would help a dude get a completely unknown, random girl he has the hots for?"

"Kind of," Miroku said uncertainly. "I'm gonna need to write down all the info 'cause I don't think I even remember what we said at the beginning."

"So we just cut it when Kagome agrees to date Inuyasha?"

"Well," Miroku said, "I think it's more romantic if she actually loves him."

"You, my friend," Koga shook his head, "Are a sap."

"I'm a romantic," Miroku snapped.

"A sap!"

"Wait!" Inuyasha yelled, calling the attention of several other people in the cafeteria.

"What, miss drama?" Koga asked. "Pricked your finger with an orange?"

"I don't want her to fall in love with me!" he hissed, quieter this time.

"What?" Miroku whispered back. "Isn't that the point of doing this?"

"I thought it was more like _liking _me than loving me!" he said. "There's a clear difference!"

"You sound so sure about her falling for you, Takahashi," Koga said with a slight smirk. "Since when has your ego blown up to the size of Kuwait?"

Inuyasha glowered. "You know what I mean."

"It's called 'How to Win a Girl's Heart', you pretty much expect her to fall in love you," Miroku smiled.

"What is the big deal?" Koga said exasperatedly. "You'll end up liking her anyways!"

"No, I won't!" Inuyasha looked shocked. Kagome Higurashi? Ew. She may look like the person he'll never mention again but… ew.

"Yes," Koga said. "Yes, you will. That's how this kind of story always unfolds. Guy makes a bet to make nerdy chick fall in love with him, guy swears he'll never like her but in the process he does because he discovers there's more to her than meets the eye, nerdy chick finds out it was a joke, gets mad, but guy is already in love with her and wants her for real, guy goes through hell to win her forgiveness, they kiss, they live happily ever after, they die on a hospital bed, the end."

A pause.

Koga thought belatedly that he maybe let out a little too much knowledge about the subject…

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure you're not a chick in disguise?"

"If I was I wouldn't go out with you!" he shot back.

"That made you sound even more gay!"

"Asshole."

"Douche prick."

"Bastard."

"And you call Miroku a sap!"

"Stop!" Miroku shouted. "Man, it's like handling preschoolers when I'm around you two."

"Tell that to him!" they both shouted.

He shook his head and looked at his two friends wryly. "We'll just figure it out when we get there. After all we have a long way to go still, don't we? We'll just take it one step at a time."

"With him at the helm, I'm expecting a couple of years," Koga said under his breath.

"Why don't you do it then?" Inuyasha growled.

"Why should I?" he crossed his arms. "You lost fair and square!"

"Then why the hell are you complaining?"

Miroku looked to the side, preparing for the fruit throwing phase that was about to happen in a few seconds. "Jeez, I could've been a monk in another life, eh?" he mumbled.

When those two start biting each other's heads off, they'll keep on going until there's nothing left.

* * *

"Use your charms, lover boy!" Miroku grinned while Koga guffawed. "We're counting on you."

"Don't we have to find her first?" Inuyasha muttered sarcastically, waving off a short guy with black hair saying a hasty apology for bumping into him. "Since when have we had this many kids?"

Even after almost months of school, the freshmen students were still clueless about where to go, even if there's a big neon green sign that said 'FRESHMEN' towards the left.

"There!" Miroku shoved him to the direction he was aiming at. Kagome was just going in from one of the three entrances. If he maneuvered cleverly enough, he might be able to catch up with her. "

"But remember," Koga mocked. "Be charming enough to make her like you but not enough to love you, you commitment phobic jerk wad."

Inuyasha mentally strangled him. "I wonder if you can still say that if you're in my position."

"Luckily," he grinned. "I'm not!"

"Here." Koga handed him two paper napkins. "All the info written is there."

"Don't read it till you get there!" Miroku warned hastily.

"Why not?"

"Because I just hate it when people pause with hallway traffic."

"Where are you guys going?" Inuyasha asked asked.

"We'll blend in with the mob like the faithful sidekicks we are," Miroku replied. "And then we'll appear when you need us, just like Robin is to Batman. Except without the tights."

* * *

He wove into the crowd. They had designated seats for every grade level. The seniors sit on farthest away from where the three of them entered. Inuyasha still couldn't help thinking about what Koga said almost half an hour before, about him ending up liking her in end. Was that really true?

He had his fair share of romance novels, English class with Romeo and Juliet and all those classics, and almost every book nowadays had romance as main plot point, or at least it lingers somewhere. He also has a bubbly sister-in-law and a more than girly mother, suggestions of what Harlequin books to read next was almost a constant topic around their house.

"Hi, Higurashi," he said meekly when he came beside her.

She turned to him with her brown eyes and smiled. "Hey, Inuyasha," she said. "You can just call me Kagome, you know, I practically have known you my entire life already anyways."

"Oh, okay, cool," he nodded his head with a slight smile.

Making conversation wasn't entirely possible at that moment, with the swarms of people trying to get to where they're supposed to be and the noise of voices and mic tests... Inuyasha was a little thankful for that, he still needed to clear his head.

"Ow!" Kagome grabbed the sleeves of his tshirt when one of the more heavy side athletes knocked her to him. "Crap." She rubbed her arm and winced.

"Watch it!" he yelled over the crowd and then turned to her again. "You alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." She was looking down. "I'm sorry, I think you dropped something."

Kagome crouched down and swiped the fallen paper napkins on the floor. He felt a momentary dread. Doesn't life ever go the way he wants now? It's like agreeing to this project put some kind of wacky curse on him.

"What's this?" she unraveled it slowly.

He snatched it away from her and crammed the paper napkins in his jean pocket. "Nothing!" He gave a nervous laugh.

"Your voice just raised eight octaves, Inuyasha," Kagome laughed. "What're you reading that looks to important?"

They climbed up the bleacher steps and settled in an empty spot.

"Er, uh," Inuyasha raked his mind, which wasn't really functioning at that moment. "Just stuff."

"Stuff?" she repeated. Did he think she was stupid or something? She wasn't going to let it go so easy.

"Homework," he added shortly.

"Homework?" Kagome rested her head against her hand. "Can I see it then? If it's just homework."

"Nah," he shook his head. "No, um, it's math. I'll feel stupid if you look at it. With you being so smart and stuff so…"

Now lie detecting wasn't one of Kagome's natural talents but this guy was more like an open book than an _actual_ open book.

Her eyebrows drew together. "That's a total li-"

"It's a list of porn sites, Kagome."

Inuyasha just heard a KO ring in his ears.

Rock and hard place right here.

Yeah, Miroku and Koga just had to choose that particular moment to reappear.

"What?" Kago asked confusedly.

Miroku wrapped an arm around Kagome's shoulders in a brotherly manner and said wisely, "Yes, as hard as it is to believe, Inuyasha _is_ that kind of a fellow. You wouldn't want to see what's in there. Even _I _find it disgusting."

"Yeah, it's not right for a lady's eyes to read such loathsome material." Koga squeezed in between them and gave an evil grin over at Inuyasha.

Kagome's mouth opened and closed like a gold fish's. "Oh-kay. You… actually have a list of them of something?" she asked Inuyasha. "And you bring them… to school?"

All three eyes were now looking at him intently. Miroku's lips were zipped tightly, looking determined not to laugh while Koga was just smiling like an… evil clown. The kind you have nightmares about and drag you off to the deepest corners of hell and eat you. Kagome on the other hand looked horrified.

Oh what to do, what to do…

"Welcome to our second spirit assembly this year!" Ria Amari, the student council vice president and a striking red head, shrieked into the microphone. The council members stood in the middle of the gymnasium, going all jiggy with the hype.

He has never felt this happy to get interrupted.

"To get the ball rolling," she giggled. "We'll start with a small game."

"It's like middle school all over again," Miroku muttered from beside him. "You remember when we used to do this? I thought by the time we get in high school it would stop."

"Hojo." Ria turned to the president. "Pick four people for each grade level to compete in our first game!"

Hojo Akitoki was the epitome of a preppy, over achieving cheese cake. 'Nuff said.

"So one each?" he called back.

"Yup!"

Picking the first three was easy. They were all younger and they still think that the president of their high school had more power than the principal herself. Seniors all around gave him hard stares. Hojo looked over at Ria desperately.

"Hey!" Ria pointed through the crowd. "Inuyasha Takahashi! You're a senior, how about trying to play?"

"Ex girlfriend," Miroku said to Kagome who looked curious.

"Who may or may not have a grudge," Koga finished.

* * *

This chapter took a lot longer than I expected and didn't get as much editing (I was thinking about posting it before Thanksgiving, but as you can see... me being a crammer and all). I wanted to get this out before all the school work piles in and I won't have as much time to write as I want. A answer to one of the questions I had, the entire list won't unravel itself until the very end because I don't know all of them yet (I'm ashamed to say that I'm making all these up as I go hahah). And what happened to make Inuyasha the one who has to be the 'data collector' will probably be revealed in the next chapter or two (it's not something spectacular, believe me).

Ask questions people! Sometimes I miss things.

Telling me how to improve will be much appreciated.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter!

R&R


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Been a while and this chappie is definitely not my best... *nervous laughter*

BUT I UPDATED! YEAH! Woot!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, all Rumiko Takahashi's!

**Chapter 4:** His Turn AKA The Bus Chronicles

_Kouga and Miroku held out their fisted hands sideways. Mock seriousness was painted on their faces._

_Both their gazes landed on Inuyasha, the only person missing in their small triangle. His arms plastered behind his back. "Come on," Kouga hissed._

_His friend glowered. "I'm not participating in this stupid game."_

_Miroku snorted incredulously. "You're just saying that because you suck at 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'." _

"_I do not suck." Inuyasha snapped, his arms now hanging loose at his sides. He took an unconscious step forward. _

_Kouga and Miroku glanced at each other. Just a little bit more, they both thought. Inuyasha wasn't exactly the hardest sort of person to convince._

_Kouga gave a little, dry cough, volunteering to deliver the next blow, the most fatal one. "What, are you not man enough?" _

_The two of them grinned inwardly as Inuyasha's face took a pale flush of anger. "Shut up."_

_'Hahah,' Kouga thought. 'Got you.'_

"_Who knows, maybe you'll win this time?" he continued with a triumphant smirk._

* * *

He couldn't believe he was back inside this God forsaken stink hole. The stupid bathroom that started everything. Without the usual aroma of fifty different brands of men's cologne, the room just plain stunk. The colognes didn't overpower the sweat and the sweat didn't overpower the cologne. They meshed together to form a very, _very_ funky smell.

A smell that he can certainly live without.

Miroku, who was standing to the side, hummed a happy tune that slowly trailed off when his friend shot him a glare.

"What?" he defended himself. "I love this song."

"I hate Ria. I swear I would strangle her if she was a guy," Inuyasha splashed another round of cold water on his face and pulled out more paper napkins than he needed from the dispenser near the mirrors.

"She hates you, too," the violet eyed boy said. "That's probably why she did this."

"Be careful, man," Kouga warned from his corner. "Don't want him to jump on you."

"Kagome was laughing," Miroku said brightly. "That was a good sign, you fulfilled step number three!"

Kouga whipped out the soiled paper napkins, barely even readable because of the gunk of chocolate ice cream and waved it around.

_Make her laugh._

"At least it didn't say: make her laugh with you and not at you."

"I don't understand why she's still mad at me," he said cluelessly. "It was seventh grade, for cryin' out loud. I don't even consider her an ex girlfriend."

"That sounded mean," Miroku frowned.

"We 'dated' for three days," he answered. "I haven't even kissed her yet when we broke up."

"You have some strawberry gunk on your shirt," Kouga pointed out. "Better rinse that out."

"You should cut your hair," he continued. "It's insanely long, you know."

"My hair is _fine_," Inuysha snapped. "And speak for yourself, you have long hair too,"

"Anyways," Miroku began on a cheerful note. "You guys going to the winter dance?"

"Hell yeah," Kouga said. "I haven't missed it since eighth grade."

"Eight grade?" Inuyasha mumbled incoherently against the tissues.

"He snuck in," Miroku whispered.

Inuyasha grimaced. "And you didn't get caught?" He stopped himself. "Scratch that, the old principal barely even showed up for work, nevermind."

"I know," he said smugly. "And I became a legend by doing so."

On impulse, he took out his cellphone to check the time. Koga held back a shocked whimper. Jamming it back in his pocket, he speed walked to the door and held out a hand. "I'm off!"

"Where're you going?" Miroku called out. Inuyasha was also jarred away from his cloud of self pity to inquire the same question.

"I'm not in the mood to go to social studies," he said absently, hurriedly. "I made a promise to myself to skip at least one day before the year ends so I'm making good of it."

"I thought they had security cameras," Miroku reminded him. "And that your mom would rip your skin off if she caught you."

"I'll wear a white wig! Don't worry."

Inuyasha turned to Miroku as soon as their friend shut the door. "He's lying, he's not skipping school."

"You think so too?" he replied. "Actually, I heard something about the sculpture and ceramics class taking a trip to the museum today. They also invited people who aren't taking that class to come along if they wanted to."

Inuyasha laughed out loud. "Five bucks says that's where he's going."

"I don't bet on certainties, my man," Miroku's violet eyes twinkled. "Anyways, winter dance, you coming? I'm hoping Sango would, I would give my heart to get a dance with her."

Inuyasha shook his head to rid his hair of more water. "You are whipped, dude. When did you say it was?"

"I didn't. It's a month from now," he said. "But, they said that teachers are patrolling all night. So you know, sneaking out to get a little one on one time at the back of the school won't be possible anymore."

He looked up, dumbfounded. "What?"

"Yeah," Miroku nodded his head in understanding. "On the other hand, Jin Asakura's planning a party afterwards and the whole school's invited. Before I forget, the curfew here is ten o'clock."

"Old lady with the iron stick?"

"That's right."

"Thought so."

* * *

"Ookami, Kouga," Mrs. Kinomoto called his name twice before marking him as gone on her attendance sheet. "Have any of you seen him today?"

"I saw him get on the bus for the field trip," one of the students answered. "I think they're going to some kind of museum."

"Oh, that's right," Mrs. Kinomoto slapped her forehead. "He gave me a note two days ago. Nevermind. Open your books to the pages written on the board and read the chapter. We'll discuss the lesson in a few minutes. Higurashi, do you mind taking this down to the office?"

Kagome shook her head and stood up.

"Don't worry, you'll have time to read when you get back."

"You guys," the red headed teacher called the class to attention. "Just to let you know, if you fail the exam next week you won't be able to go to the dance."

The students didn't even bother to give some sort of reply.

'We're having a dance?' Kagome thought as she closed the door.

The girl's brown eyes flitted to the passing windows. "I'm pretty sure we'll be having a storm too."

* * *

"I knew it," she said out loud an hour and a half later.

Kagome shivered while the wind whipped her black hair around like a tornado. The textbook above her head provided a poor cover for the heavy drops of rain that continually fell from the sky.

Of all the bus stops in the world with roofs, she just had to be stuck with the one without any. The school buses were already long gone, so she was forced to wait for the regular one that would undoubtedly put a hole in her pocket. She was hoping to get her pay check sometime this week or she'd have to live off of granola bars for the next few days.

Extracurricular activities often occupied Kagome's free time after school. Or if not, a part time job would. She didn't mind, except of course, on days like this.

She lowered her head and snuck a peak at her wrist watch. Ten minutes until the bus arrives. That seemed like a long time if you're just standing still, uselessly trying to stay dry and staring at your watch.

Should she walk? Nah, that would take thirty minutes. But either way she would be drenched. Maybe she should just call in work and not go at all. Her house isn't that far away now that she thought about it. Guilt started to gnaw at her at the mere thought.

'Even I have to admit I'm too OC,' she thought gingerly.

She frowned deeply. 'It's not like we have money to spare especially with the wed-'

"Kagome Higurashi!"

She started at the voice and slammed her head against the post. A wince escaped her lips and her eyes blurred because of the red dots that splayed all over her vision. "Inuyasha Takahashi," she yelled back. "I would really appreciate it if you didn't shout my name to the entire world."

"Whoops, sorry," he gave her a bashful smile and slowed his jog coming near her.

They both paused and turned away. The awkwardness that was so familiar when they were in each other's company once again seeped in and they both turned over their brains for something to say.

She gave him a once over. He was wearing basketball shorts and with a Shikon High jersey with a sports bag hanging on his right shoulder. And the moment, Inuyasha Takahashi was drenched.

And it was hard to get mad at a person in the same boat as she was.

"Isn't it too cold to be wearing that?" Kagome gave a weak laugh as he went over and stood next to her. 'Please don't let the next nine minutes be hell."

"Athlete," he grinned. "I ran track during the winter too, so this weather doesn't really bother me. Only the rain does."

Inuyasha dropped his bag and leaned against the post as Kagome said, "Luck you."

"Sorry," he said apologetically and stooped down again. He fished out a thick sweatshirt inside his bag and held it out to her.

Her eyes widened. "Oh, no, you don't have to do that!"

"It's okay; I didn't wear it during practice. It got cancelled because of the 'oncoming' storm."

"I didn't mean it in that way either," Kagome said, taking it reluctantly and drawing it over her head. Normally she would be a little freaked out at the thought of wearing a guy's sweater, but come on, it was raining. She was already wearing her uniform for WacDonald's. "What are you doing here by the way?"

"The same thing you are," he answered with a smirk. "Waiting for the bus."

She tilted her head with a slight purse of her lips. He was making fun of her. "I thought you had a nice ride. A 2010 BMW, I'm assuming?"

"Yeah, but due to some unfortunate circumstances, I'm unable to use it at the moment," he answered. She didn't need to know that he was exceeding his gas limit. His mom had a fit when she saw much he had spent. "Miroku usually gives me a ride home when I'm grounded but he didn't join the team this season so…"

"You two are close, huh?" Sango gave her rides whenever she could, too.

"Me and Miroku have known each other for a long, long time," he related. "Our moms were friends in high school. Kouga… almost as long, but we weren't friends until we had reached eight grade. He only does track but doesn't really do any sports. He kinda bailed after the assembly and went somewhere."

Kagome adjusted her backpack. "Oh yeah! I wonder how that sculpture thing went.

She paused when she saw the boy in front of her crack a smile.

* * *

Inuyasha pursed his lips. 'I knew it.'

In his mind's eye, he saw a chibi version of Kouga wrestling with a ceramics dough and a chisel.

He was having a bad day but that thought made it considerably better.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with a guy doing that, you know."

Inuyasha blinked and noticed Kagome was frowning at him deeply. "What?"

"You are such a guy," she glared.

"You're such a girl."

She drew back and narrowed her eyes even further. "Oh, I'm at a loss for _words,_ what made you think I was one?"

The innocent banter continued on for a while.

* * *

"The bus!" Kagome cried happily. "There it is!"

The headlights flashed through the curtain of rain and stopped just right in front of the two them. Unsurprisingly, the bus was on the verge of toppling over because of the people inside. Near the back, they found two empty seats and immediately snagged the chairs.

"Are you telling me you haven't done a single 'girly' thing in your entire life?" she began as soon as she sat down.

"Nope."

"How about second grade, the 'Cinderella' play?"

"I was the prince," he answered.

"You haven't had people put make up on you or something?" she said. "I mean, I think you can pass for a girl if you wore some."

"Thanks, I'll try crossdressing one of these days just to see if you're right," he said sarcastically.

* * *

Two bus stops later.

"I can see it in your face," he answered. "You were expecting someone to turn around the corner driving in a car to rescue you from the freezing rain and take you away."

Kagome placed a hand on her hip and raised a brow. "I don't have a problem with walking in the rain, but I need to go to work and I can't show up there dripping wet. Don't tell me that if you were in my position, you wouldn't want someone to drive you."

"I already told you I have no problem with this." He pulled at his shirt that was in the slow process of drying.

"I bet you can't work to save your life though," Kagome said. "You wouldn't last a day at WacDonald's."

"Is that where you work?"

"Yep."

He looked at her curiously. "Do you get discounts?"

"Yeah," she grinned. "But it's only for family. Don't worry, I can see it in your face. You were expecting someone to give you food for free."

"Darn," he smiled good-naturedly.

* * *

The driver announced the next street they were stopping on over the intercom. Kagome broke off their conversation and stood up to stand next to the sliding doors. "I need to get off at this stop, Takahashi. It was nice talking to you."

"Um, yeah, it was great talking to you too."

He honestly did and that was kind of unsettling, then another thing popped inside his head.

"By the way, the paper," he started awkwardly, getting up to stand near her.

She turned to him distractedly. "What paper?"

"The paper napkins," he elaborated. "The one Miroku told you contained a list of… unsavory websites."

"Oooh," she said slowly. "That paper."

"This may sound awkward but I swear to you that that's not what's written on there," he explained, a slight tinge of pink appearing on his cheeks. "I just-just don't want you to get the wrong idea."

Kagome eyes widened, the widest they've ever been in the two days Inuyasha Takahashi uttered more than three words to her since grade school. Casual talk about nothing was one thing... _this_ was another. "Wha…?" she trailed off slightly then coughed. "Um, okay… then... I figured you know."

Inuyasha's eyebrows rose. "What do you mean?"

"You didn't seem like the type," Kagome said objectively. "It was more of Miroku's territory. Besides, it's hard seeing you as a perverted person despite your long dating records."

"Thanks, I guess," he replied then looked down at her. "Was that meant to be a compliment?"

"It's up to you on how you want to take it," Kagome paused. "Here's my stop. Anyways, I'll see you when I see you, 'kay?"

She didn't wait to hear his reply because the doors were almost beginning to close. With a hasty wave, Kagome jumped down from the steps and sprinted across the street to WacDonald's.

Inuyasha didn't want _her_ to get the wrong idea? Were they even talking about the same person here?

'Something's going on,' Kagome thought. 'Definitely.'

They barely even conversed, let alone acknowledged each other for years. Sure, a considerable part of their childhood, involved the other in it, at one point they were even neighbors, but they didn't exactly dwell in the same circles.

"Hey, Kagome!" Yuka, her boss, greeted her brightly. "I thought you weren't going to work today. How did school go?"

"Weird," she replied absently.

* * *

He had a feeling he had done something wrong.

After a few seconds he just shrugged and returned to his seat.

He had been worried when he spotted her standing there before. It would mean conversation, and he wasn't really in the mood for talking. _And_, what would they be even talking about? So far, all his attempts at talking to her had ended in kaput. But he really did enjoy it.

Inuyasha bent down and pulled out a random notebook from his bag along with a pencil. He tapped his knee with the sharp lead before scribbling down something inside the notebook.

_Be nice to her._

_You don't really need us to tell you that._

_

* * *

_

Hey! I haven't updated in a looooong time and I'm extremely sorry! In short, a lot of things had happened in the last few months, which includes major writer's block. And finals. And projects. And death... Yup, pretty tough.

This chapter is nothing by the way, like it doesn't even fit im anywhere at all, and they're sorta even more OOC than before so... I just wanted to write something. I had spent countless days just staring at a blank word document with nothing coming to mind! THIS CHAPTER BLOWS. If I can think of something else to post, I would change this one asap.

There's no gurantee but in my dream world I'm planning on releasing the next chapter somewhere around late March...

Thanks for readin!

R&R!


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: I updated early! Woot!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha and the gang, only wish I did hahah.

Thank you for the awesome reviews and feedback!

**Chapter 5: **A Day in Their Lives

Kagome strolled down the dreary hallways of Shikon High with an armful of fat folders along with her own binder. Sulkily, she thought of just how lucky she was that her teachers, even the ones she barely knew, treated her like some kind of delivery girl that they can order whenever they want. Kagome do this, Higurashi do that pfftt… it's like they don't have their own legs.

As she passed by a shiny, clear window, she spotted a couple of students lying down on the grass and laughing at the sun.

After the unforseen four day storm that wrecked the days of many, the clouds parted through Sunday afternoon and the sun showed his happy face for the first time in what seemed like a decade in teenage years. The majority of the students took advantage of the brilliant weather and kept on frolicking outside, rolling up sleeves and pants and shedding sweaters. Hence why the moment a certain Mrs. Hiroshi spotted her in the walking by herself in the deserted hallways, she asked Kagome to take her things to her classroom and went out on one of the exits to enjoy the weather herself.

She was sorely tempted to say 'no', but she didn't have the guts to do it. Instead she smiled in what she hoped wasn't obvious as forced and trudged back the way she just came to.

'No sun for me,' she thought sadly.

And just when she thinks her day can't get any worse, someone smashed against her when she turned the corner. Yeah, she thought these kinds of things only happened in movies but apparently not. Her nose collided with the person's shoulder painfully and her hands lost their grip on the folders as she instinctively rose them to to soothe her bruised face.

Papers flew everywhere, including some things Mrs. Hiroshi's wouldn't let a student's eyes to behold. Test answers, grades, and lesson notes for the day. Kagome thought sadly, as her butt made its way to the cold marble floors in slow motion, that her things are escaping the confines of her binder as well, which she regretfully didn't zip up all the way.

Kagome wasn't the strongest person. Even Souta, her little brother, can make her fly with just a simple shove. This was a dude, she thought, definitely. Otherwise it wouldn't hurt as much.

She realized blindly that it was Miroku, as soon as his voice sliced through the silence.

"Kagome!" He repeated her name as his hand wrapped around her wrist the moment her butt _did_ hit the cold marble floor. He got her up in one quick pull like she was a sack full of feathers and started apologizing profusely. She was in the middle of saying that it was alright when she caught sight of the pile of papers on the floor.

"Crap," she muttered. She slid beside him and kneeled down, collecting the pieces of paper in haste.

"Ah," Miroku's eyebrows pursed guiltily and immediately dropped beside her. "I'm so, so sorry, Higurashi. Don't worry, I'll pick them all up! I'll even alphabetize them if you want me to!"

"Dude, don't call me that,'" Kagome gave her a wry smile. "It makes me feel old when I'm actually younger than you. It's cool."

Miroku's violet eyes still looked troubled, wide and shiny. "I'm still sorry. Are all these yours?" He nodded towards the mesh of papers.

He clasped his hands together and bowed his head in shame.

Kagome paused and blinked. This guy was an absolute puppy. Give or take a perverted puppy, but still. His eyes may not be as breathtaking as Inuyasha's but he's got chops and knows when to use them.

"Um, no." She looked around, out of her admiring stupor, slightly embarrassed. "Most of the things around this general area," she motioned to her section of the floor, "are mine."

"Damn," he pouted and started ranting. "Didn't even realize where I was going! And I even hit a girl, it's so awful!"

"Miroku, I'm not a peach," she said. "I can take care of myself you know."

"You can barely even play dodgeball."

Kagome smacked his shoulder. "I _so_ can!"

Finally after a couple of minutes, Miroku stood up and handed Kagome the chubby green folder. He waved a white, shiny envelope with intricate trimmings around the edges. "Knowing Mrs. Hiroshi this isn't hers."

Kagome laughed. "No, it isn't." She slipped the envelope inside her binder and zipped it up. "Thanks for the help."

Miroku didn't want to pry but he was slightly intrigued. Before he could ask, Kagome beat him to a question. "Why aren't you enjoying the sun?"

"I was on my way out, just had to put stuff inside my locker," he glanced at the watch and shrugged. "May I walk you to your next class? Or I could deliver those things for you."

"Nah, it's okay, Mrs. Hiroshi's room is just a few doors from the gym," she grinned. "But I wouldn't say no to the walk to class. Stop treating me like I'm a damsel, Houshi."

Miroku offered his arm and she linked hers through his in a laughing manner. "Where are the two other musketeers?"

"Inuyasha has a slight cold so he's not coming to school today and Kouga's not here yet."

Kagome's head whipped to the side, looking up at him, worried. "He's sick?"

"Yeah," he shrugged. "Apparently he got caught in the rain. Inuyasha got grounded, did you know that?"

She chewed her bottom lip and winced. "Oh man, he gave me his sweater when we we're waiting for the bus last week. That's probably why."

"Hey, don't look so bad. Inuyasha'll probably be thanking you 'cause he's been waiting for an excuse to skip a day. His mother's been ruling their house with an iron hold."

"Yeah, but I got him sick! I don't think I've gotten anyone sick before," she whined.

Miroku chucked and gave her a look. "He has gotten sick before, you know," he soothed.

_'Now or never,'_ he thought.

"And he's that kinda guy. Always wanting to help people."

It was her turn to give him a weird look.

* * *

He felt like crap.

His body temperature wavered back and forth, at times being too high and soon after so cold he can barely take a breath because of the constriction of his lungs. As of now, he was in the process of transforming sweat to icicles.

Woah, that was a freaky thought.

"Darling," Izayoi knocked on the door with a gently fist. "How are you feeling?"

Inuyasha grunted from underneath the covers, any vocal response muffled by the pillows.

His mother went over to his messy bed and sat at the edge of the bed and looked over her son worriedly. She placed a cool hand on his forehead, smoothing his already messy hair. "Your legs are falling of the bed, dear," she laughed.

Slowly, he attempted to move his leg, only to be met with an agonizing pain that crept all throughout his body. "Ow."

"You're running a fever," she informed him apologetically. "You won't be able to go to school for a couple of days, maybe more..."

"You took away my car, mom," he mumbled. "I had to wait at the bus stop with no roof."

"Aw, don't give me such pathetic excuses," she chided with a flick of her hand. "You could've called me to pick you up."

"Weren't you working then?" Inuyasha said. "Can you please hand me the tissue box?"

Izayoi bent down plucked a couple of pieces. "Honey, I would've left work early to pick you up. Don't come home drenched again, alright?"

He chuckled, albeit weakly. "I feel like I'm eight again."

She scoffed affectionately. "Get some sleep, I'll check on you in an hour."

Mrs. Takahashi left the door open three fourths of the way.

"Hey, mom, about my-"

"You're not getting it back until you pay off your bills!"

* * *

"Smart and you know, he's good looking! I mean how many guys can you find like that?"

He took a deep breath and went on.

"An athlete,_ and _he has a very rare pair of eyes! It's gold, right? Or amber-ish? He's like the male version of Elizabeth Taylor!"

"Didn't she have eyes like yours?" Kagome said dryly.

He opened his mouth, then closed it. "Okay, wrong person."

'I feel so darn gay for doing this,' Miroku thought with defeat. But it had to be done. The bathroom stall says so. With wobbly smile plastered on his face, he had spent the past few minutes singing praises about his best friend like a crazed super fan whose life rotated around Inuyasha and him only.

_Step 4: Sucking Up_

_Friends, this is your time to shine. When a girl dates a guy and vice versa, friends come with the package because, let's face it, this is high school. No way of avoiding it. In my share of experiences, getting to date girls who are already friends with my friends or at least has friends who are friends with my friends (if that makes any damn sense) are easier than attempting to date someone whom you have no thread of people in common with. The girl always looks at the people you hang out with because if she does agree to go out with you, then she is going to spend a considerable amount of time time with them. What kind of person you are also shows with who you're with. And having your buddies make you look like the salvation of the male species isn't bad either. _

_By the way, Dog Wonder caught a cold this week. So, the experiment will be halted for an unspecified amount of time after this one._

_PS: Wolf Monger (underline, underline, underline) wrote this piece because the 'hunk' is too busy gaping at his unrequited lady love. *evil smiley face right here*_

"Oh, you have P.E.?" Miroku stopped in front of the door. He did a mental 'hurray'.

"Yes," she replied absently and looked up at him. "Miroku!" she gasped.

"Wha-what?"

Kagome pursed her lips and shook her head. "If I was Sango I would slap you."

* * *

"Will you guys please hurry up?" Minako Azumi shivered and wrapped a fluffy beach towel around her shoulders tighter and tapped her bare foot impatiently. "I'm turning into a freakin' fish here."

"Wait your turn like the rest of us," another girl smirked and lathered her hair with more shampoo.

"Dammit, Kara!" she shrieked. "You're using up all the hot water!MOVE!"

Kagome stayed silent on the bench and watched as the two girls push each other. Thirty kids in their class with six showers. Even if they shared two at one there still weren't enough. And these were the types of girls who wouldn't be caught dead smelling like chlorine without any sort of make-up on.

Swimming sucked.

"Double time!" Ms. Hitomi yelled. "You have fifteen minutes before the bell rings! DO NOT be late for class!"

"What the hell?" Minako shrieked again. Though she had no intention of joining the cheer team, several members actually scouted for her during freshman year when they heard about her incredibly loud voice. "I haven't even shampooed yet!"

"We don't have enough showers!" One cried, busy with blow drying her dark brown locks.

Their teacher groaned exasperatedly and tapped her clipboard for a moment, seemingly in deep thought. "Fine, okay, go use the boy's locker room, they have showers BUT be quick about it because the next class is about to come in."

"YES!"

Several girls ran out and Kagome stood up from her position on one of the benches. Though before she passed by the door, another hand grabbed her arm.

"Hey, Higurashi, I'm done. You can use it," a tall brunette with jade eyes grinned. Satsuki Long. Nice girl who played sports year round. "You don't want to go to the boy's bathroom, trust me. It's disgusting. Had to do it for team sports last year and the stuff you will find in there, you can live without seeing."

"What do you mean?" she asked. Kagome went under the shower head and breathed a sigh of content as the warm water enveloped her.

Satsuki shrugged, stepping out and grabbing her towel. "I dunno, but I've heard they're commissioning painters to fix it up. Vandalism and sharpies."

Kagome blinked.

"Sharpie?"

* * *

Minako and her were the last ones to rush out of the door to sprint to their next classes.

"I am never going back there again!" Minako snarled to no one in particular. Another towel was wrapped around her head and makeup was being applied with swift precision.

Kagome spoke from beside her. "That bad, huh?"

She glanced at the shorter girl. "You mean you never went in? I thought you were right behind me."

Kagome shook her damp hair. "Nah, Satsuki was already done so I went and used hers."

"Well, consider yourself lucky, Higurashi." Minako laughed.

"There's still plenty of time. We'll be swimming for three more weeks."

* * *

"Here," Kagome pushed back some notebooks inside her yellow backpack until she found the right one. "And... aha! This one!"

Miroku stuffed the carefully folded sweatshirt and Kagome's red notebook inside his backpack. "I'll make sure he gets it safely, ma'am!"

"How's he feeling?"

"A lot better than this morning," he said. "I think he's coming back tomorrow."

Kagome grinned. "Thanks. Oh yeah, can you tell Sango if you see her that I'll be meeting her at the lockers? We're headed over to Ayame's place after school ends."

"I'll make sure she gets the message too." Miroku waved as Kagome went away. "See ya."

He turned his attention to the door and waited.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later...

"Sango, please, just one date!"

Said girl cringed and stepped away from him. "Leave me alone! And stop trying to grab my butt, you pervert!"

"I wasn't though!" He amended. "At least not this time!"

Students and teachers alike passed by them, unnoticed. By this time, they had gotten used to Miroku and Sango's antics, fights and slaps. It _has_ been going on for the last couple of years.

"God, Taijiya," a burly basketball player hollered as he went by. "Just go out with him already!"

"Don't treat me like I'm stupid," Sango snarled, ignoring him. "Don't think that I'm not seeing what you're doing."

Miroku slumped his shoulders. There goes his dream date. "What?"

Sango closed her eyes and breathed. "Kagome Higurashi is like a sister to me, so if you or your stupid friends ever hurt her, don't whine when you wake up with no hair."

* * *

"Koga," Miroku hissed, glancing side to side. "Sango just threatened me!"

Said guy groaned. "Can we please have a conversation without her name being involved in it?"

Miroku gritted his teeth. "She said that if we ever hurt Higurashi, then she'll shave off my hair without me even realizing it! Can you believe that? And it's not just mine, it's yours and Inuyasha's, too. Should we turn back before we're in too deep? I mean, I know how sensitive you are about your ha-"

"No!" Koga skewered his face and turned pink. "We are not backing down, dammit!"

And so the day went on.

* * *

Miroku keep on walking along the street until he spotted the familiar three story house with the nice garden at the front.

His own home was only half a mile away and was no where near as fancy. Miroku lifted a small potted plant on the left window sill and grabbed the spare key discreetly. He unlocked the door and placed it back under its hiding spot before pushing open the door.

The sight of the Takahashi's living room had always amazed him. Huge couches, huge book cases, big plants, mahogany tables. It screamed sophistication, but he still found it homey and oddly comforting.

"Miroku," Izayoi Takahashi stood up from her position on one of the chairs and pinched his cheek affectionately. "It's not right that you know where you keep our spare key."

He smiled at her. "But I still do anyways. Is Inuyasha up in his room?"

Miroku considered Inuyasha's mother like his own, considering that Mrs. Takahashi used to be best friends with his mom until she passed away, along with his dad, in that car accident back when he was eight.

"Yes, probably drooling on his pillow," she laughed. "Is Kouga coming over too?"

"Yeah," he started on the flight of stairs. "He had to finish a few things, he'll probably be here in a few minutes. It's nice to see you again, auntie!"

Miroku walked fifteen steps and turned until he faced a half closed door. Snores vibrated through out the room along with occasional snores and clogged coughing.

He took it his cue to go in when he heard Inuyasha mutter some obscenities that would've made his mother go into hysterics.

Two quilts and three blankets covered the lump in the middle of the bed.

"Rise and shine, skipper." He slammed the door shut. An irritated growl underneath the covers emerged. "How're you feeling?"

"Like I've just been through a wood chipper."

Inuyasha pushed off the covers and winced when he tried to get up. His nose was extremely red and his eyes gave off the appearance of a person crying non stop.

"Woah," he gasped. "You-you- look…"

"'S fine, you don't need to finish that sentence. Probably better if you didn't, man, I know I look... horrible." Inuyasha sneezed. "I don't think I've ever been this sick since elementary school. God, I feel like puking every five seconds."

"Direct it away from me, dude," he chuckled. "Anyways, I tried sucking you up to her as much as I could and I think I came out as having a secret crush for you. You totally owe me for that, but I should mention it didn't go in too well."

Inuyasha laughed. "Thanks."

"And also, I'm an acting delivery boy for Higurashi." He handed the sweat shirt to his friend along with a red notebook. "She said thank you for the sweat shirt and she also gave me her notebook for calculus for the notes you missed today. Smells flowery."

"Inuyasha," his mother's soft voice flitted through his room. "Are your friends staying for dinner?"

"Yeah, mom, if you don't mind," he automatically answered and focused back on the notes in front of him.

Inuyasha had no idea what the hell was written on the first four pages. Numbers, numbers, numbers and letters with numbers attached. He skimmed through them wryly.

'Maybe I shouldn't go tomorrow…'

But he gotta admit that it was pretty nice for her to do that. She also wrote down the things he missed. Quiz, that day's lesson and the homework he knew he wouldn't understand anyways.

He kept on flipping the pages, not even bothering to comprehend what they meant. Then, his eyes widened and a smile grazed his lips when he caught sight of the huge block letters written with a black sharpie at the next page.

'Get well soon'

* * *

Thanks for reading!

Here's the author's corner:

I can't wait for the the break... sighh. I'm pretty sure there are some grammatical errors in this chapter. I just wanted to post it before all the school work piles in again.

And I am having a huge blast from my childhood. I started watching Courage the Cowardly Dog again after almost six years? It doesn't freak me out as much anymore *grins proudly*. Ahhh, memories :)

R&R!


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** I'm back! And thank you so so much for the reviews!

Enjoy the sixth chapter of 'The Handbook'

This is officially the longest story I've ever written in my life… whew.

The italicized paragraphs are the guide.

**Chapter 6:** Shakespeare

"Roses are ...red. They're red right? Right? Okay, okay... and... violets are… er, purple?"

"Violets are blue, dumbass." Koga slammed a notebook against Inuyasha's head. "I can't believe you, you don't even know the first lines?"

"I don't get it," he shouted, ignoring him and glaring at the table. His pencil gave a tiny crack as his fist crushed it further. "How can violets be called violets if they're _blue_? What the hell is up with that?"

"Because 'blue' is easier to rhyme than purple," Miroku smirked.

He stared at the blank sheet of paper in front of him, veins appearing on his forehead.

He's trying to be in the zone.

He's trying _extremely_ hard to be in the zone.

And if pain can burn holes through wood…

"This isn't working." Inuyasha wailed, desperately pushing away the piece of paper and pencil, shaking his head back and forth. "I can't do it. I'll do _anything_ else, just not poetry!"

"You didn't even _try_," Miroku scoffed, propping his feet up the chair opposite of him. His eyebrows wiggled. "Anything else? You sure?"

Inuyasha growled. "Stop misinterpreting what I say!"

The Ogre hasn't arrived yet, thankfully, otherwise he wouldn't be able to do this. Though Mrs. Asagi makes it a point that being late for her class is worth than death, the invisible rule doesn't apply when it's_ her_.

Inuyasha leaned back on his chair. "It's not like I was born into a literary family... You guys know what's on the bookshelves at home? Harlequin books! And my mom's not even ashamed of having them!"

"I could've gone through life just swell if you didn't mention that, but what I do know is," Koga slammed a flat hand onto the table-top, "you need to do this, Takahashi."

Inuyasha, in turn, smacked his forehead on the same table. "But I don't want toooo," he whined. "It's like ulcer to your brain! I can't make cheesy stuff like-like… Shakespeare!"

Miroku and Koga exchanged glances. "It only sucks because _you_ suck at writing them," the latter smirked.

"Go to hell, you douche."

"The Harlequin books were supposed to make you better," Miroku said. "Didn't you read them?"

"No," he gave him a disgusted look and continued, "I've never written poetry for anybody in my entire life and I'm not about to start now."

"It would be so much easier if I actually like Kagome. Then all I would be thinking about are probably ponies that poop rainbows and butterflies!" Inuyasha imitated a girl's voice then sneered.

"Just go back to the roses and violets idea," Miroku suggested lighty. "You just need two lines and make the end words rhyme. Come on, we've been here for half an hour already and the only thing you've accomplished is that you had just figured out that violets are purple."

"I don't own a floral garden either," he pouted. "Can't you just write it for me? You're way better at this stuff."

_Step 5: Poetry is not just for Shakespeare_

_Unless you're one of those deep, soulful guys who breathed poetry and can find 45 different words to describe an eraser, you probably haven't seen real poetry other than inside your English class and the hallmark cards your dad sends your mother during Valentine's. _

_It's like a law that girls like poetry stuff. And I wanna say that the mushier the better. Have you ever read that sonnet by Shakespeare that had him comparing a girl to a summer day? _

_Don't start running towards the nearest wall and bashing your head repeatedly until you p__ass out (we are sorry to say that that's what Dog Wonder was planning to do), because no matter how much you suck, said girl will appreciate the effort._

Miroku shook his head. "It doesn't count when I do it."

Inuyasha scoffed. "She doesn't have to know, man."

"That's cheating and we need to be as professional as possible!"

"Apparently, even if it blows, she'll still appreciate the effort," Kouga added and nodded over to Miorku. "Right?"

"Right."

'We hope,' they both thought discreetly.

"But," Inuyasha hesitated. "Isn't it a little too early for romantic poetry?"

"What do you mean?"

Inuyasha fiddled with the pencil, keeping his amber eyes on the paper, a look of dread seeping in his face.

"Well, won't she be a little freaked out if I start spewing out my undying love so suddenly?"

Kouga wrinkled his brows. "You don't need to write about your undying love specifically. It can be anything, how great the morning is, why the sky is blue... Just to show her you have an actual soul."

Miroku continued. "And that you're not dead inside."

"Just because I don't compose poetry means I'm dead inside?"

The door slammed and Inuyasha managed to grab hold of the table before falling backwards. "Woah," he mumbled nervously.

"I'm sorry, I'm late," Mrs. Asagi waved and dropped her things on the table up front. "And I've told you before, I don't like it when you do that to _my_ chairs."

* * *

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

I suck at poetry

How about killing me instead?

* * *

"Hey, Kagome, I need your help."

She looked up from her pencil doodle. She has been doing that a lot lately. "With what?"

Mr. Imoto, after completing his short lesson for the day, let the students loose and leaned back on his swirly chair with his signature cup of coffee and an ambiguous magazine in hand. Within less than a second, everybody moved away from their normal seats and went

Inuyasha sat on the chair opposite of her, flipped it, and glanced side to side before whispering conspiratorially, "I'm attempting to write poetry."

"Poetry?" she echoed blankly.

He nodded his head, serious. "Quite frankly, I didn't know I sucked until I started trying to write one."

"What do you need it for?"

"Um, well, I just felt like writing it," he shrugged. Inuyasha then added on impulse, "I actually want to impress this girl that I like; I think she enjoys reading these kinds of things. Romantic cr- poetry."

He was kind of disappointed when he saw that there's not one hint of a frown or any reaction in her face. "Well, I can't really help you there, I suck at them too," she confided.

'There's a conversation killer,' he thought sourly. When will she ever cooperate?

"Miroku said that she'll like it more if she knew that I at least attempted to make my own," Inuyasha explained, trying a different tactic. "So I can't really copy anything."

She looked at him thoughtfully. "Ever tried the 'roses are red, violets are blue yada yada'?"

His frown deepened. "I wonder why everyone keeps saying that…"

"It's the easiest thing to do," she laughed. "You'll do fine, if you really like her then stuff will just pop in there," she pointed to her head, "without you even trying."

"Yeah... no," he answered. "You see, I've tried that idea already and nothing goes in there. For example, I consider a beef burrito the love of my life and I can barely come up with ten words how to describe it."

Kagome looked at him incredulously. "What? There's like four different things inside a burrito."

"Exactly. Four."

"Ah, now I begin to see your plight," she shook her head, amused.

"Inuyasha, I can't help overhearing your pathetic excuse of a list to describe possibly one the best things _ever_ created in this world, a burrito." Jin Asakura, who was up until a few seconds a ago was minding his own business, scooted his chair loudly over to their side, making Mr. Imoto emit a sharp cough. "I can give you ten words to describe a lettuce… green, leafy, thin, delicious…"

"Thank you, Jin," Inuyasha said dryly. "Now go away."

"And the beef and sour cream? I can probably think of twenty each, especially the beef chili… Oh, by the way, just in case you're wondering, the new taco place isn't as good as Taco Bell when it comes to tacos but their burritos are uh-mazing, I know we're not supposed to go off campus anymore but I just saw like half the school over there last week."

"Asakura," Mr. Imoto coughed even louder. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say that so as a sign of your gratitude, _shut it_."

"Yes, sir." He saluted then continued in a slightly lower voice (but was by no means quieter). "Do you guys want to hang out there after practice? Running won't be as bad now that the rain's gone. My mom was pissed and started attacking me with a dish cloth when she saw me walking through our hallway with shoes caked with freaking' mud."

Jin continued, "But what shocked me the most was when my baby brother pranced through five minutes after hald covered in things I don't even want to know about, she didn't even lift an eyelash! Doesn't that show you a sign of favoritism? Jan doesn't even do a single damn chore around the house and she treats me like a male version of-of… Snow White or something!"

"Don't you mean Cinderella?" Inuyasha asked dryly. "And isn't your brother, like, six years old?"

Jin threw up his hands. "Big difference! Both of them have evil mothers, right?"

"Asakura!" Mr. Imoto slammed his magazine down hard on his desk.

"Okay, okay, okay, I'm sorry!" His brown eyes widened as tears started to make them glisten. "Give me one more chance!"

He frowned. "Detention for thirty minutes."

"But I have practice!"

Inuyasha looked over to Kagome, who was already back writing on her notebook, oblivious to them both. 'Damn,' he thought.

Stupid Jin.

He was a frequent victim of this kind of thing too, mostly occurs when he's with his girlfriend and her friends or just plain girls. They get into talking about things that he could care less about or didn't know anything about.

In short, girl talk.

Or in Kagome's case, guy talk.

But he didn't even participate in it. Jin could hold a stupid conversation by himself. Inuyasha said like what? Three sentences?

"Hey." He tapped her notebook once to get her attention before flashing an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I got off task."

She shook her head slowly. "No, it's fine. Actually, I think you should be talking to Asakura rather than me. You heard him right? Beef and sour cream?"

A sudden icy glare from her eyes made him shut his mouth. Who knew the younger cousin could perfectly mimic the Ice Queen glare of Kikyo?

Kagome was able to turn the light atmosphere into a very cold night in the North Pole with polar bears.

Hold up.

Was he just shot down?

Does it even count as _being_ shot down when he wasn't even hitting on her?

... Or was he?

They were still working through the mechanics of this thing...

He doesn't want to, but he _has_ to...

Was there a difference?

Inuyasha's jaw dropped. Woah, was he understanding the situation correctly?

As other thoughts started to occupy his mind, Mr. Imoto stood up from his chair and called the class to attention.

* * *

She didn't want to admit it, but she did feel kind of bad.

Kagome tried to calm her hand, stopping it from writing to briskly, in case it gave away her slightly bruised feelings.

Man, but she shouldn't even care though. Logically speaking, of course he'd rather talk to someone he's known his entire life and had gotten along with better than just a random girl. It's cool. And it should be. Kagome thought herself to be above petty things like these.

And she had a bunch of things to do with her time like, like…

I dunno, like doing her homework?

Kagome paused mid-breath, her hand stopping in the middle of writing the homework for the night.

She was such a loser.

* * *

After class, Jin made it a point to corner Inuyasha. His instincts are made of steel. There are some things he has never been wrong about.

"Who's the chick?"

Inuyasha didn't even look at him and continued walking. "There is no chick."

Jin snorted and blocked his way. "Don't lie to me, guys do not write poems about burritos unless they're trying to impress a girl." He poked Inuyasha's shoulder with a happy pout. "Come on, I can't walk away without knowing these things."

"How you can connect a girl and a burrito is waaay beyond me."

"Easy," he smirked proudly. "Both of them are out of this world."

"Sicko."

"Oh," he held up his hands. "Come on, we've known each other since preschool, tell me who she is."

Inuyasha glared. "There's _no one_."

"So what's with the poems?" He titled his head knowingly, a Cheshire cat smile on his lips. "And you asked Kagome, too, now that was just weird."

"Didn't it ever occur to you that maybe I've… suddenly discovered a secret love for poetry? It ain't easy you know. I bet Shakespeare also went through some bouts of writer's block!" he snapped. "And what's wrong with asking her?"

"That's complete bull and ya know it," he said. "You watch Gossip Girl? The Gossip Girl in _this_ school is me. I'm the Gossip... boy... man... dude, whatever."

"Do you have any idea how," he searched for a world, "how _girly_, you sound right now? And do you really even watch that? Because I think you got the context all wrong."

"Psh," Jin snorted and looked to the slide, but his brown eyes still staying at him. "The point still stands."

Immediately, the raven haired boy started to list names. All the names that popped in his head, starting first within the circle of their friends and then branching out. Inuyasha's face remained stoic however, not even the sluttiest names in their school could make the guy blush.

"You're not gay are you?" Jin deadpanned. He had hoped to get some sort of reaction but theres nada. Not a thing. "That's not fair, you know. I've just been listing girl names and for all I know it could've been some guy and I'm just wasting my life going through this. I haven't started listing guy names yet and-"

"You're blocking the way."

Jin twisted his head and blinked down at Kagome's disapproving face. "Er, sorry." He scooted a little to the left to make way for her. She rolled her eyes before passing them by.

'Why is she being so mean all the sudden?' he wondered vaguely. But other things are more important at the moment. Oh, God, wait a second...

A brow was raised and a curious eye settled on Inuyasha. "It's not her, is it?"

It was a twitch, barely even noticeable at the corner of his mouth, that gave away everything. A normal person wouldn't notice, but as was said before, Jin Asakura had iron instincts. He could win awards for it, man. Maybe he should set up some kind of detective agency.

"Holy crap, it's her?" Jin gasped loudly, his hands flying up to his mouth. "Higurashi? For REAL?"

"No, no, no," he said quickly. "NO! Wha- stop looking at me like that!"

"Hahah," Jin grinned.

Inuyasha gritted his teeth. "Do NOT make me punch you, Asakura."

He raised his brows incredulously. "You won't punch me here, Inuyasha. I know you. You're a sissy."

"Go away!"

* * *

They call that whispering?

Jerkwads.

Kagome shuffled through her locker and left.

* * *

Why a burrito? Well, I was eating some awesome ones (along with tacos hahah) when I was writing that part. News from the author's corner, we're startin' to read Shakespeare at school!

Oh! And they're just copying what's written on the stall onto a piece of paper and writing how it went when Inuyasha did the particular 'step'. Hope that made it clearer for you guys. Just ask if it's confusing.

Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: School… this chappie's not the best sadly.

Disclaimer: Don't own these amazing characters… I just use them for my own amusement… did that just sound weird o.0. Hahah.

I present the seventh chapter! Enjoy :).

**Chapter 7**: In Between

"I'm personally inviting you," Jin handed her a folded piece of notebook paper, "to my party."

Kagome alternated suspicious glances between the raven haired boy and the words on the said paper. "Did you just write this?"

After she slammed her locker door and started to head down the stairs, Jin bellowed out her name, making more than a few people turn their heads, and called to stop.

Jin shrugged. "I thought it would have more meaning this way."

She blinked a few times. It was better not to ask, she decided. "Oh… thank you."

"And you can take whoever you want," he said graciously. "Just keep it on the low. I may be super rich," he grinned, "but my living room can't house a thousand people."

Kagome nodded and stuck the paper inside her binder. "I'll keep that in mind… and I'll think about going to your party."

Jin Asakura nodded happily and began to walk but did a double take when his mind processed what Kagome had just said. "Woah, hold on a sec, did you just say 'I'll think about it?'"

"Yeah, so?"

His mouth opened and closed a few times before finding the right words. "You have to think about it?" Jin cried. "I actually took the time to invite you _personally_ instead of letting people do its thing."

"Let people do what thing?"

"Rumors, gossip, you know!" Jin flapped his arms around madly. "The most courteous thing to do is to accept it. I don't just do this for anybody."

Kagome's eyebrows furrowed. "So why did you invite me?"

Jin's lips twisted. "I'm doing a favor for a friend."

"By inviting me?" she deadpanned.

He answered as if he couldn't believe she was oblivious, with a look of disbelief and a high pitched voice. "Yeah."

When he didn't say anything else she went on, "Care to elaborate further?"

Jin smiled easily and went on his way with a high whistle. "Nah, it's more fun this way." He then said louder, "Higurashi, give me an answer by tomorrow, okay?"

* * *

Over at the guy's corner…

"Can guys giggle?"

A cricket.

"Oh, god," Koga moaned and buried his face in his hands. "What the hell was that?"

"What?" Miroku shrugged. "It was just a question. Think about it, in books you never see a guy _giggling_."

"Probably it's because of the voice, if you have a deep voice, then you're practically incapable of giggling."

"BUT," Miroku pointed out. "Boys under the age of twelve can giggle, how come?"

"… because they haven't hit puberty yet?"

"_Okay_, if you two are done having this dumbass conversation, I need you guys to listen," Inuyasha cut in, motioning with his hands. "Jin Asakura has it in his head that I like Kagome, so just in case he starts harassing you for details, just say I don't."

"Why does he think so?"

"The poetry plan didn't work out exactly the way we expected."

* * *

"Do you want to go to Jin Asakura's house?" Kagome asked dryly.

She and her two friends were lounging around in the Higurashi's small living room. The television was on though nobody paid any attention to it, and Buyo the cat was too busy playing with his yarn to notice everything. All three of them were in their own little world until Kagome spoke up.

"Hm?" Ayame murmured, turning to her absently. "You wanna trash it or what?"

"Jin's throwing a winter bash over at his place on Friday, you freak," Sango said dryly.

"Yeah," Kagome answered and told them the story. "Do you guys want to?"

"A handwritten invitation, pretty impressive, Kags," Ayame chuckled, eyes twinkling at the letter.

The red head sighed whistfully. "It might be fun."

"You can go if you want to," she suggested.

Ayame guffawed. "I have a broken leg. I don't want to end up with two."

Sango shook her head. "Got into a fight, got suspended, _and_ fell down the stairs, you're like a walking disaster."

"I think Kagome's bad luck got transferred to me somehow," Ayame said wryly.

Kagome grimaced and smacked her arm. "How about you, Sango?"

"Is Miroku going to be there?"

Kagome thought for a moment. "I would think so."

"Then I'm not going."

Ayame's mouth quirked up. "Stop. You're starting to like him."

"Am NOT," she growled.

"If you guys are coming with me then I might consider it, but if I'm by myself then no," Kagome said.

Sango grinned. "You can't always have us there with you."

"In this instance," Kagome replied, "I have to."

* * *

About an hour later…

"Okay, I don't want to sound too Neanderthal-ish, but what does one wear to a party like Jin Asakura's?"

Sango mused, stroking her chin, "Probably a slutty shirt… _and_ a slutty skirt, that always works, doesn't it?"

"Hahah, very funny, Ms. Tomboy," Ayame raised a brow. Kagome held up a piece of clothing for them to look at.

"Not a sweater," Sango cried distastefully.

"Why not? It's winter."

"That makes you look like a grandmother."

Kagome rolled her eyes and went back to her drawers, fumbling to find acceptable clothes to wear.

Ayame hobbled over to Kagome's closet and fished out an outfit. "Just wear jeans and a blouse, you can't go wrong with it."

Supporting herself with one arm, the redhead held up a pretty green shirt that Kagome could've sworn not seeing before. "This will look good on you. It's not too slutty nor too spinster-ish. Wear that."

Sango nodded in agreement, then her eyes settled on the dress that hung on the handle of her friend's closet. "Is that the gown? It looks effin pretty, Kags."

"Oh, yeah," she laughed absently. "Just got it yesterday."

"I can't wait for the wedding," Ayame giggled dreamily. "This cast better be gone by then. I'm up for meeting hot guys."

"Holy crap, Ayame," Sango giggled.

* * *

What the hell?

This has been the second time Inuyasha has spotted Jin Asakura and, out of all the girls in Shikon High, Kagome Higurashi.

Yeah, it just had to be her.

Jin flashed the short girl a charming smile and made a loud cheer.

Inuyasha scowled.

He was not amused.

The jerkass.

Inuyasha breathed in sharply and hid behind a random row of lockers, eyes watching. Wasn't Jin's attentions currently focused on Yayoi? What the heck? He actually took a 'no swearing' vow (no matter how unsuccessful it is) for her. That is a freakin' serious thing in high school world, man!

Inuyasha gripped the walls until his knuckles turned white. This was not a good thing. Was Jin seriously considering giving up Yayoi for Kagome?

Well, it's not like she wasn't attractive or anything…

He's already mentioned that he thought she was very pretty, not to mention she was smart and…

Woah.

Inuyasha's heart rate doubled even more. Was he just thinking that?

Holy crap. Clear the brain, clear the brain, clear the brain, clear the brain…

To people passing by, Inuyasha Takahashi looked like a confused pit bull getting his steak taken by a chihuahua.

He whipped out his cell phone and dialed an all familiar number.

* * *

"Okay, well, I'll see you later," Kagome waved goodbye and went the opposite way.

Koga and Miroku arrived approximately ten seconds after Inuysha made 'the call'. They swooped in from Inuyasha's hiding place and parked in front of Asakura before he started walking as soon as she was out of sight.

"Jin, what are you doing?" Koga narrowed his eyes. "It's not cool to cheat on your girlfriend, bro."

He frowned quickly. "I'm not cheating on Yayoi, the hell's wrong with you?"

"Then why are you paying sudden attention to Kagome Higurashi?" Miroku asked curiously.

"Are you two the Hardy boys or what?" he smiled. When his crowd made no sound of amusement, he went on, "I just invited her to a party," Jin said innocently. "You can even ask Yayoi. She's cool with it."

"Yeah, but you invited her and not us," Miroku said. "What does that mean? We've been friends since preschool."

"I didn't invite you_ because_ we've been friends since preschool." The shorter boy sighed exasperatedly. "Do I need to? You guys are going to come anyways, right?"

Jin looked at the two of them calmly, then groaned again. "It's fine, trust me! I'm not going to steal Inuyasha's girl, okay?"

Both Koga and Miroku's jaws dropped. "Inuyasha's girl?"

"You don't have to lie to me," Jin waved his hand. "It's totally cool. I already know."

Miroku's eyes, along with Koga's, came close to actually falling off of their sockets. They turned to look at each other nervously.

"Er, you know what?" Miroku croaked, voice limp and cracking.

"He doesn't have one," Koga murmured at the same time.

They've known Jin for a long time, though this did not give them any comfort. Because they've been friends with him for so long that they knew that the boy was a complete… blabbermouth, for a lack of better word. The kid cannot keep his mouth shut for his life, she's even worse than a girl.

"That Inuyasha has the hots for Higurashi," he said. "I'm just helping to grease the wheels. They say parties are a good place to hook up, right? Besides, Higurashi's not the type to just barge in without an invitation. Don't worry, I have Inuyasha's best intentions at heart."

* * *

This was a hard chapter to get out! I started writing this like immediately after I posted the last chapter but school… yeah, do I really need an explanation for that lol? And writer's block too. I have some sort of idea for the next one so I'm hoping it won't be as difficult.

Thanks for reading and hope you liked it!

R&R


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: I updated peeps! Woot!

Time's moving so fast -.-

I feel like school's just right around the corner.

Thank you for the support you guys. And as always, it makes my day XD

**Chapter 8:** What Should I Title This?

"Okay, so Jin still thinks that I like Kagome," Inuyasha mused. "And invited Kagome to his party because he thinks it'll help me get her attention?"

"Yes," Miroku said, nodding. "So we shouldn't worry about it at all. It was just a momentary panic situation that we can deal with later."

"That's great," Inuyasha let out a sigh of relief. "I thought it was going to turn into a big story arc about a rival guy who's gonna ruin everything."

Miroku bobbed his head in understanding. "I know. Don't you just hate when stuff like that happens in the movies?"

The two of them trailed their eyes after the notes that Koga held as he stood in front of them. It now had seven pages. The titles and credits, and the six steps.

"Here's you latest mission, Agent Dog Wonder," Koga went over to the Mrs. Asagi's desk and grabbed a stapler. "Miroku wrote it a while ago."

Koga tossed it over to Inuyasha.

He took it without a word and flipped to the latest page with the same messy scrawl. It was weird that he seemed so used to this, like it was some sort of routine. Like school.

_Step 6: Flowers_

_First thing's first…_

_Check if she's allergic to anything! *underline, underline*_

_Because if not and you cause her to go to the hospital, you might as well jump off the building because you are a pathetic excuse for a dude! One of our old friends gave his girlfriend flowers instead of chocolates for Valentine's day because he wanted to be 'unique' or whatever. Guess what happened? It caused her nose to swell up three times its size and made go all Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on him._

_Let's just say the relationship did not last long afterwards_.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't it make more sense if I waited until _Valentine's_ to give her flowers? You're sense of time is insane."

"That's like two months away," Miroku cringed. "Besides, you can give anybody flowers any time of the year. That's the beauty of it. Just make up an excuse."

"Doesn't Rin work in a floral shop?" Koga clapped his hands. "This is perfect. You can probably get some for free."

The three of them gave a loud hoot. Other people didn't even bother to pay attention to them.

Inuyasha said lightly, "Okay, so what kind do I get her?"

That put a spoil on their happy party for a while. "Hm…"

Miroku suggested, "He should go with her favorite kind."

Again, all three boys accepted the logic.

"Cool. Do you guys have any idea about what they are?" Inuyasha inquired.

Silence.

Well…

That was another wall to walk right into.

"We don't know her all that well to know," Koga said sadly.

* * *

She was reading under a tree.

Sango, he meant.

In this light, she looked more human and less like an evil banshee who's going to rip his brain off.

(They concluded in their heads that aside from family members, Sango might know a thing or two about Kagome.)

Without even looking at him, Sango Taijiya, with dryness in her voice that could rival the Gobi dessert, said, "If you're looking for Kagome, she's inside the cafeteria buying milk."

Inuyasha gulped. He knew that. He also knew that Miroku and Koga are currently trying to distract Higurashi for a while to give him some time to talk to Sango. "Oh, nah, I was actually hoping to talk to you."

She flipped the page so sharply that he cringed.

What did he ever do this girl anyway?

Well, sure, they were fooling around with her friend and everything but she doesn't know that. Unless Miroku slipped and told her. Or she's psychic.

The latter's more likely in any case.

On second thought, the boy was whipped.

Maybe she hates him because he was friends with Miroku? One of those hate by association things?

Focus, Inuyasha.

He really had no time right now to argue with himself.

Sango slammed her book shut and looked at him expectantly. "What do you want?"

"Er," Inuyasha mumbled. He crouched down beside her and blurted out, "What are Kagome's favorite flowers?"

"Her favorite flowers?"

"Yeah," he coughed. "I was planning to get her some as a thank you for lending me her notes."'

Silence.

"Well?" Inuyasha asked impatiently.

She leaned back on the tree trunk and raised a brow, daring him. "Am I obliged to give you an answer?"

"No," he grunted finally. "But it would be nice if you did."

Sango grinned out of nowhere. "You're outta luck, Takahashi. I don't know either."

"You don't?"

"No," she replied thoughtfully. "I know she likes green and what her other favorites are but not flowers. Which is weird, now that I think about it."

"You're not lying to me, are you?" He glared at her suspiciously.

Sango scoffed and pursed her lips. "If I wanted to screw over your attempts to get near my best friend, this wouldn't be the way I would do it."

She continued, "Why do you need to get flowers? How about something that she can actually use?"

"No, it has to be flowers," Inuyasha answered.

"Why?" Sango said skeptically.

_Because the guide says so._

"We-well," he sputtered. "Flowers work the best."

"Guys," Sango rolled her eyes and opened the book again. "Fine, I could ask her about it if you wa-"

"No!" Inuyasha yelled in panic. "You can't tell her I asked you."

At that moment, his phone gave a beep. He immediately fished it out of his pocket and read the message

_Girl heading your way. Get out of there NOW! Code red, code red, code RED! _

They had never established codes, but he was beginning to think this was the start. And that red wasn't such a nice color.

"Aw, damn," Inuyasha stood up and prepared to bolt. "Taijiya! This conversation never happened!"

* * *

Sango gaped as the school's track star sprinted for his life. She gave out an 'oh' when she spotted Kagome heading over to her with two bags of chips and a carton of milk.

"Hey," Kagome greeted then threw her a Doritos pack. "What are you staring at?"

_This conversation never happened._

As much as she wanted to tell Kagome, and wreck Inuyasha's day, she bit her tongue. Sango was definitely curious about how this flower thing was going to unfold. Besides, she meant what she had said to Miroku about him and his friends waking up with no hair if they happen to hurt Kagome in any way.

She just shook her head. "Nothing. A bird was flying by."

Kagome eyed her curiously like she had lost her mind before plopping down on the grass. "Kaggy, I have a question to ask you by the way."

"Shoot."

"What's your favorite flower?"

Kagome gulped some milk before saying, "Why?"

Sango shrugged a shoulder. "I'm just curious."

* * *

"Did you get out of there in time?" Koga inquired with a bite of his cold, dry sandwich from the school deli. He grimaced at the taste but continued eating nonetheless. You can't complain when you're hungry.

Inuyasha panted and grabbed an apple from Miroku's plate. "Isn't it obvious from the blood coming out of my ears?"

He swung his leg over the chairs and ran a hand through his hair, glancing at his friends. "It was a total bust. She doesn't know what kind."

"What?" Miroku said incredulously.

Inuyasha started biting and murderously chewing the apple as he nodded. "You would think that girls tell each other everything…"

"Just go with the roses idea then," Koga recommended.

"Whatever," he answered indifferently. "I honestly don't care at this point. You guys can come with me after school to Rin's flower shop."

* * *

"Hey, Inuyasha!" RIn Takahashi grinned widely as she spotted her brother in law enter the door with a small ring of the bells. "Miroku and Koga, too. How was school?"

"Hi, Rin." He gave her a brief hug before saying, "We need your help."

"Oh," she replied. "Homework?"

Inuyasha turned his head to the side and hissed before looking at her again. "With a girl."

She raised her eyes. It wasn't everyday that Inuyasha would ask for her help. Especially when it comes to his personal life. "A girl?"

"Before you get any ideas," Inuyasha said hastily. "This is just like a thank you gift. She helped me with some stuff so I wanted to get her some flowers as a sign of my gratitude."

"Okay," Rin smiled. "Well, you went to the right place then. What kind are you looking for? I can't say that we have every kind but we do have a bunch."

"We're thinking roses," Koga added. "What do you think?"

"I don't know," she laughed. "I haven't even met this girl so I don't know what she's like. But I think roses are way too cliché and _if _this is just for a 'thank you', then too romantic."

"It is?" The three of them echoed together.

Rin giggled. "It's just my opinion, that's all. How about getting her something else less common but still nice?"

"If you can recommend anything then that would be great. We went with roses because we thought it was the universal flower that every girl likes."

The older girl tapped her chin thoughtfully. "What's she like?"

Inuyasha glanced at his friends. "What do you mean?"

"Personality? Likes and dislikes?"

"You can tell what she wants just by us describing her?"

"I've worked here for a long time," Rin sighed.

"Kagome's... nice but also kind of sweet," Miroku started. "She's the smartest girl in school. She lent Inuyasha her notes when he was sick."

"She's pretty too," Koga added. "Inuyasha once mentioned that she had an amazing smile."

Inuyasha turned crimson in a matter of milliseconds. "No, I didn't! Shut up, you ass!"

"Yes, you did!"

"I didn't! When did I even say that?"

"You said she looked like Kikyo, and she used to be one of the hottest girls in school so I just assumed that-"

"Are you sure this is not a romantic-" Rin interrupted.

"It's for a thank you!" Inuyasha growled and hid behind Miroku.

"Oh, yeah, that's real adult of you, Inuyasha," Miroku grinned. "Hide behind me 'cause your embarrassed."

"Am not!"

"Enough, you two. How about daisies?" Rin pointed to the bunch right next to her. "We just got them today. They're sweet and simple. The yellow ones are particularly nice."

"They're too plain," Inuyasha mumbled and crossed his arms. "What about those?" He pointed to a group near Miroku. "What do you call them?"

"Orchids," Rin answered, smiling.

"I'll get them then."

"Dude, I think she'd like these hydrangeas better. The orchids look scary," Koga disagreed. "Now _these_ look cute."

"What? They look gross," Miroku scoffed. "I would go for the lilies of the valley."

And just like that, the three broke out in argument.

Rin watched them for a little while, amused. She had always thought that high school guys were weird. Even having a brother-in-law as one, she still didn't understand them.

When other customers started to stare at the three boys, she took it as a sign to intervene.

"Alright… have you considered asking this Kagome girl what she likes? You and your friends have this uncanny knack for making simple things three times more complicated than they should be."

Inuyasha turned to her and shook his head. "It has to be a surprise."

Rin looked down at her hands. "How about friends? What about her parents? Siblings?"

"Well, there is Ayame…" Inuyasha glanced at Miroku and Koga. "Her other friend, but she hasn't been coming to school for about a while, I think. And her parents definitely out of the question."

She snorted. "Why not?"

It was his turn to look at her like she was some kind of alien from another planet. "Because it would be weird."

"Weird?" she echoed.

Miroku gasped. "He can't just go up to her mother and ask."

"Why not?" Rin crossed her arms.

"They're not even dating," he explained. "It would be entirely inappropriate."

Rin groaned exasperatedly. She wouldn't even bother asking in what universe would asking be 'inappropriate.' "Ugh, high schoolers… You guys better out grow this pettiness because you won't survive in college if you keep this up."

* * *

In the end, they settled for sunflowers. After two hours of going through every single bundle in that floral shop, all four of them agreed that that one would be the best choice.

Rin, being the awesome sister that she is, gave it to Inuyasha free of charge with some words of advice.

The next day, Inuyasha arrived to school an hour early to hide a gigantic sunflower in his locker. His social life would be inexplicably destroyed if someone had seen him lugging around a two foot tall plant. And it's not like he can hide it under his jacket either.

During class breaks, he would go to his locker and take out this little spray bottle to sprinkle water on the damn plant to keep it all healthy and nice until it was time to give it to Higurashi.

More than a few times did he excuse himself to the bathroom to check on the sunflower. Half of his teachers probably think he had some kind of bladder problem that only people in their 80's get.

This was so pathetic it wasn't even pitiful anymore.

Now, he had to stay an hour behind to wait for her extra credit activities to end.

When he was sure that the hallway that contained his locker was empty, Inuyasha took out the sunflower and sat near a corner to wait. He sprayed water on the plant every thirty seconds until a small puddle started to form on the floors because he was bored out his mind.

Again, the pathetic-ness of it all was mind boggling.

On the other hand, Inuyasha was actually looking forward to this for some strange reason. A relapse from the fever maybe? Or just the nerves? But all the same, he sort of felt excited.

About twenty minutes later, the math club was dismissed. Luckily, his unlucky fate was turning for the better because Kagome was the last one to exit the door.

Inuyasha stood up and glanced at the sunflower. He cursed as he took in its pale and close to dead appearance. It was soggy, too. He was half afraid to shake it because the petals might fall off and all of this would've been for nothing.

He better be quick.

* * *

Despite a lot of self denial as she exited the school and walked towards the bus stop, Kagome was slightly hoping that she would see Inuyasha standing there waiting for her.

Maybe this hopefulness was because, up until then, no guy had paid that much attention to her at all. Not that what Inuyasha was doing was considered attention at all either. But still, it was nice.

After that rainy day when they had ridden the bus together, she had never seen him again except during class. And the last time they had talked was when she snapped at him about resuming his talk with Jin Asakura about burritos and poetry.

She leaned against the pole and sighed.

Then Kagome felt something cover her eyes.

She froze.

Before she could let out a squeak and start screaming for her life, she heard Inuyasha's voice say, "Wait, wait, don't yell! I just wanted to give you something but it's kinda hard to hide, so can you close your eyes before I tell you to open them?"

It took her brain half a second to process what had happened.

"What? Inuyasha?"

"Yeah, it's me," he sighed. "Are your eyes closed?"

"Uh, sure?" What the heck was this? "You won't conk me in the head and tie to the tracks, will you?" She laughed.

"Don't flatter yourself, Higurashi." She could almost see the smirk in his face. After a few shuffles, she felt him stand in front of her.

"'Kay," he said. It shocked her for a moment that he sounded almost giddy. "Go."

It took her a moment longer. Probably because she was sorta scared.

In front of her was a sunflower being held by Inuyasha, who was grinning like a moron.

Speechless (due to her jaw dropping rather uncharmingly), she lifted her hands to cover her face.

Inuyasha frowned as he jerked the flower away from her. "Woah, you're not allergic to pollen, are you?"

Kagome burst out laughing. "No, no, I'm not!"

She took it from him as he handed it back to her. "What is this for?"

"As a thank you," he answered nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders. "For the notes that you lent me when I was sick. And as a sorry for the burrito incident with Jin. Killing two birds with one stone."

"Golly, how sweet," she said sarcastically with a look. "Thank you."

* * *

Inuyasha didn't want to admit it, but he felt kind of warm and a blush started to seep in his cheeks. Seeing her that happy over such a simple thing made him feel nice.

She didn't know to know that the smile she sent over to him made his heart go a little (oh, psh, it was nothing really) out of wack. And it wasn't like 'Oh, crap, I'm going to fail this test' kind of wack. More along the lines of this amazing girl is smiling at me kind.

Sheesh, maybe he should just throw himself out of the bus.

He really, really hoped that Koga's prediction wouldn't come true.

The last thing he wanted was for that guy to be proven right.

* * *

I UPDATED! WOOT! It has been more than a month since I posted anything lol. I was just enjoying the wonders of summer break...

Harhar, I love writing clueless Inuyasha and friends, along with fluff. So writing the chappie was fun. I was watching an episode of 'Everybody Loves Raymond' when I was writing a majority of it, hence the flower idea. Also the reason why I was distracted for so long.

There goes chapter 8!

Thanks for reading and sorry for the slow updates!

R&R


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own a thing!

I think I screwed up the timeline somehow O.o

I'm going to have to go back a few chapters to fix stuff.

Be warned, dear readers, this chapter's going to move by fast.

**Chapter 9: **The Set Up

"I am _not_ pushing her down the stairs!"

"What's the big deal? Inuyasha's going to be there to catch her."

"What if a bird gets lose, hits him in the eye and he doesn't get her in time? What then? Kagome's going to die and it's going to be my fault!"

"She's not going to die!" Miroku said exasperatedly.

"Whatever, man, I ain't taking any chances," Koga snarled. "And I'm not willing to look like a complete douche face, a'right? I won't survive in jail."

Miroku sighed. "It's not like you're performing in a theater! Do it as subtly as possible, like a tiny nudge. Come on, you can do it. She'll go flyin'."

Koga glared.

"Someone's going to have to look like an ass for someone to look like the hero," his friend said apologetically. "That's like how life goes."

"Bullshit."

_Step 7: Derrrr..._

_Have you guessed the title yet?_

_Well, if you haven't, it's 'Be a Hero.'_

_Whoo… _

_Anyways. Here I am again: the Wolf Monger. Gee, that name does have a nice ring to it, huh?_

_I don't know what happened to the Hunk, dude just falls off the grid when it comes to writing these things. _

_Moving along (is it obvious that I hate that pseudo name?)…_

_You see this scenario a gazillion (and I mean it) times in the movies. I don't know… popular girl/someone in general shoves Girl aside and either two things happen: _

_1. Chick falls to the floor, along with her stuff, and then poof, guy's there looking all 'I'm going to effin' save your day by helping you pick up your insanely heavy books, but they aren't really 'cause I'm all buff and stuff.'_

_OR_

_2. Chick doesn't fall, but is instead caught by the guy looking all 'I'm going to effin' save your day by catching you before you fall flat on your face and splatter your stuff everywhere.' _

_(It's either the guy's psychic or a stalker because there's no way in hell he can be there at exactly the right time.)_

_So yeah…_

_Sooo… as Dog Wonder is neither of those things (…or is he? *weird eyes right here*), we're going to recreate this scene by some means…_

_Girl will look at you like a hero, which is like a major boost from 'the guy who helps me carry my stuff.' Whichever way you go, it's going to be fine._

_We guarantee it. _

It was too early in the morning for this. Freezing, too. In a perfect world, it was the perfect day to stay at home and sleep in, but alas, in reality, it was Wednesday morning and school's going to begin in less than fifteen minutes.

"By the way, how did the flower thing goooo?" Miroku poked Inuyasha's shoulder, momentarily distracted.

He laughed awkwardly in response. "'S fine…"

After that, he offered no other details.

"And?" Koga prompted.

"And what?"

"What else happened?"

"Nothing really," Inuyasha mumbled. "I gave it to her and went home."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah… why?"

"You're turning all red,"

Inuyasha frowned and buried his face inside his hoodie. "It's because I'm freezing."

Miroku and Koga gave him incredulous looks.

"I'm not lying!

* * *

PE during the mornings usually gave Kagome a bad mood, but she was considerably... joyful.

The happy feeling that had enveloped her since yesterday afternoon lasted well throughout the next. It was stupid really, but who cares?

"Oh my God, that smile is ripping apart your face," Satsuki Long commented shrewdly as she went in the girls' locker room. "May I know the reason why?"

"I'm not smiling," Kagome pouted, twisting the right combination to open her locker.

"Sure, sure," she replied with a cackle. "Does it have to do with the bouquet you received yesterday?"

Kagome choked. "I didn't get any flowers." Technically it was the truth. She had only gotten one.

"Aw, please, I saw everything." Her jade eyes twinkled and she lowered her voice. "You two going out?"

"No," Kagome pursed her lips. "He was just saying thank you 'cause I helped him one time."

Satsuki looked at her incredulously. "What?"

The raven haired girl nodded.

"High school guys do not say thank you with flowers if they're not going out with the recipient," Satsuki said wisely. "There's something going on there. But I won't pry, I'm sure I'm going to hear all about it in the local gossip mill in a few weeks."

"I swear, we're not dating," Kagome whispered. "By the way, how did you know? Are you stalking me now?"

"Soccer field's right by the bus stop," she answered.

"Woah." Kagome's head did a whiplash. "Did other people see? Like people from our school?"

"Nah, at least I don't think so," she shrugged. "They were all on the other side of the field trying to score a goal."

"What were _you _doing?" Kagome asked curiously.

"I was the goalie," Satsuki sighed. "It's pretty boring when you're one sometimes, especially when you have a good team, so I look around."

* * *

Mrs. Asagi sat by her desk flipping a magazine (what's up with teachers and magazines?) while the students sat quietly (psh) by their tables and twittered as quietly as possible.

"I'm a fucking genius," Miroku grinned, leaning back on his chair. "It'll work, I swear."

Inuyasha ran the plan in his head. "Okay, you," he pointed to Miroku, "are going to pretend to be someone else with the help of a jacket and beanie, run into Higurashi, make her stuff fly all over the place, and then run away in a rude manner. _I'm_ going to turn the corner at that moment, look all surprised, and then help her?" He turned to Koga. "And you will distract the sidekick."

"Yes," Miroku nodded.

Inuyasha and Koga shared a look. Maybe it was because they were hanging out with Miroku far too much, but that actually made sense.

"Wait, how am I supposed to know if it's the right time?" Inuyasha said slowly.

"When you hear the sound of crashing books?" Koga inputted dryly.

His friend frowned. "I'm just trying to cover all the bases, you ass."

"I'll be there just in case," Miroku said. "I'll yell something."

"How about Sango? How will that work out?" Inuyasha crossed his arms.

"..."

"We're stil thinking," Miroku smiled mysteriously.

* * *

"Kagomeeeeee," Miroku sang loudly, appearing almost out of thin air to her. "I have a job for you."

"I don't think I have the time for iiiiit," she crooned back, walking briskly.

Miroku blocked her way, his arms spread. Other students gave him sharp stares but he ignored them. "It won't take that long, I promise. Listen, Sango needs your help. For some reason, she told me that she's going to be late class. So she wanted me to hunt you down and ask you if you minded taking her stuff to you guys' classroom." Without warning, he slung Sango's black Jansport along Kagome's right shoulder (where her yellow one was already in place) and shoved a thick binder bursting with papers in her arms.

"Oof," she cringed against the heavy weight.

Miroku smiled apologetically. "I would do it myself but, sadly, I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because of… the reason..." he said slowly.

"Which is?"

"I…hm," he frowned, thinking thoughtfully. "I sprained my… arm. Yeah."

Kagome raised a brow. "You do know that I know that you're lying right?"

"But you're going to do it anyways?"

Kagome shook her head, shifting her feet to balance herself. "Sure, I guess… Did Sango tell you where she's going?"

Miroku smiled innocently and looked elsewhere. "I have no idea…"

* * *

"Ookami!" Sango howled as she pounded on the door. "I am going to _murder_ you and burn your rotting carcass if you don't open this door RIGHT NOOOWWW!"

Koga leaned against the closed door of the janitor's closet forcefully, sweat building around his temple. God, maybe this woman really did have super strength. He feared the door might break with her voice alone.

Like it was a sure sign from above, the hallways are deserted. Shoving Sango Taijiya inside a closet may not be the best of ideas, but this was the only way they could think off that had the slightest chance of working.

He took out his cellphone while his other arm held the locked doorknob. "Takahashi, you better get your ass over there because I don't think I can hold her that much longer!" he hissed, then to the door he said more loudly, "Shit, Sango, I told you I'm doing everything I can to open it!"

"You pushed me in, you moron! Don't lie!" she growled. "And where did you put my stuff?"

"They're right here," he lied. "Umm… calm down before you call in the police!"

* * *

Kagome was panting.

She was going to punch Miroku.

After his obviously evasive answers, he started to run towards the _same _direction she was heading off to and left her in the dust.

What the heck was going on here?

Aside from her own backpack full of bricks, she was carrying Sango's. Kagome wondered when her friend had ever gotten this gigantic binder...

Geez, when has the stairs ever been this long? She was sweating…

* * *

"Why are we making sure she's carrying a bunch of things?" Inuyasha said fleetingly, closing his phone as he passed by Miroku, who was standing by a random corner with their things.

"So that she walks slower, and you two can have more one and one time. Pick them up slowly and_ talk_," Miroku groaned and waved him away while he flipped his jacket inside out, showing a different pattern and zipping it up again. "For cryin' out loud, GO! You need to be there and get ready."

"Yeah, yeah," he sighed. "Was it really necessary to lock Sango in a closet?"

Miroku winced. "I'm going to pay for that later... where's the cap?"

Inuyasha pointed to his backpack on the floor. "In there. By the front pocket."

"Aw, dude! This cap's PINK!"

* * *

"Would you please _move_ a little faster?" Someone snarled behind her.

Kagome snuck a peak from over her shoulder and saw Ria Amari, the student council vice president. And behind the red head were two kids who looked like they should still be going to middle school. They were pushing and fooling around with eachother, and stabbing Ria's back and head with their elbows.

"I'm sorry-" she began.

At that moment, one of the kids lashed up his arm and hit Ria smack dab in the head.

"Holy-!"

Kagome's heart sank to her stomach as Ria fell against her harshly. While the other girl managed to regain her balance, Kagome continued her trek down to the floor.

'Oh, God,' she thought sadly. She was a long, long way from the floor. Maybe if she didn't have all of this stuff on her... yeah, there was no way she was going to be able to break her fall with in her hands and back. Either way it was too high. Was she going to bash her head in against the concrete and die? Kagome knew for sure that if she did, then she was going to come back and haunt those two kids for the rest of their lives.

'Oh, man,' she gulped and closed her eyes.

* * *

That wasn't supposed to happen.

Higurashi wasn't supposed to fall down the freakin' stairs! He wasn't even supposed to catch her like that! Geez, that girl was a walking disaster!

Inuyasha was getting bored waiting around the corner, so he snuck a peak. That's when he saw the two kids, Ria being pushed and crashing against Kagome's back, the dark haired girl wobbling and losing her balance.

He shot forward quickly. "Dammit."

Inuyasha didn't know how the heck he got there so fast, climbing up two steps and catching Higurashi safely. It wasn't that far, but still...

"Oof," she mumbled, her face colliding with his shoulder.

"Are you-" Inuyasha began worriedly, but halted as he realized something.

He was tipping backwards.

'Aw, crap,' he thought as he tried to balance Kagome with a binder between them, and two backpacks on her back. It was too damn _heavy_.

He cringed.

Definitely not good.

* * *

Yay! There goes chapter nine! I'm so sorry for not updating for months lol. I didn't expect high school to be this horrible.

And the tripping scene was so anticlimactic -.- I'm going to rewrite that someday lol. On the other hand, I had bucket loads of fun imagining that. That actually happened to me once, only I was heading up and it wasn't that bad.

One more thing, dialogue rules!

Anyways, The Handbook has been up for a year! Woot!

R&R

Thank you guys!


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews and reading. As always, they make my day all the time!

**Chapter 10:** The Irony

"Help!" Miroku frowned as he heard a high pitched voice call. He pushed himself off the wall and started forward to the source, his feet carrying him faster as he got closer.

"Aaaahhhh…." Miroku felt a stab in his stomach, his head going light and his eyes bursting out of their sockets.

He ran as fast as he could towards the growing circle of people, and tried pushing them aside. There, in the clutter of things lay his friends, who were as still as rocks. "Are you guys alright?"

'_What kind of question was that?'_ he asked himself with a smack. Of course they're not, you idiot.

"Call the nurse!" A random student shouted above the noise.

"Oof," Miroku heard Kagome mumble as he kneeled beside them. Okay, thank God, there was no blood, no blood, no blood… unless they were bleeding on the inside, which was so much worse. Hell, he was never going to do this ever again. Never EVER.

He helped the girl stand up first, carefully removing Inuyasha's arm around her waist. "Are you hurt?" he shouted, frightened out of his mind.

Kagome shook her head shakily. Miroku then turned to his best friend who was lying still on the floor. "Please tell me you're not dead, man." He actually felt tears prickling in his eyes.

"I'm okay, not _dead_ yet at least. Sheesh," Inuyasha mumbled drowsily, trying to sit up. "I'm just checking if I broke anything, and my brain's still trying to get back at the top of my head."

"WOAH," he held out his hands and ordered, "Don't move and just stay where you are!"

Inuyasha promptly fell back again on the floor and grimaced.

Miroku gave a nervous laugh and turned to Kagome, who looked like she was nearing a catatonic breakdown. He put a comforting hand on her head and told her it was going to be alright.

"What _happened_?" he emphasized. Nowhere was THIS on anyone's mind.

"Well-" Inuyasha began.

"What's going on here?" Mrs. Asagi's voice felt far away, as were the shooing sounds that she made. "Get back to class!"

"Someone …" One student started to explain, but the rest was muffled.

Their science teacher gave a loud shriek and started manhandling the frozen students aside. At the same time, the school nurse was being lead up the stairs by Ria Amari.

"There were these two kids who shoved me," the red head explained. "And then I fell into Higurashi. Inuyasha caught her but they both fell down anyways."

"If your name isn't Inuyasha Takahashi, get your butts moving to your classrooms!" Mrs. Asagi shouted, unsuccessfully trying to get rid of the students.

She turned to Miroku and Kagome and made shooing noises once again but the two of them stayed still and waited for the school nurse to get closer.

Inuyasha was giving the adults a very uncomfortable smile. "I'm all good, no need to worry."

"I think I'm the only one entitled to give that diagnosis." The old nurse pushed back some of her curly her and held out her hands. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Inuyasha's face skewered, either from the pain or annoyed at being treated like a small child was hard to tell. "Four."

The nurse frowned slightly, reached over and smacked his right arm. Inuyasha's amber eyes welled up and he shouted, "What the heck was that for?"

"Go to the office now," the nurse ordered, preparing to stand.

"Is he going to be alright?" Miroku questioned nervously, rising up with her.

She smiled. "Yes, his arm doesn't look broken, so maybe just a sprain. I would suggest him going to a hospital to be sure." She turned to her patient. "Do you have anyone who can take and pick you up over there?"

"Um," he hesitated. "I don't…"

"I can go," Miroku piped up. "It's okay."

Mrs. Asagi turned to him skeptically. "You can't leave school, Houshi."

"I can call Rin," Inuyasha interrupted. "She doesn't work very far and she has other people she can put in charge while she leaves."

"Are you sure?" he asked uncertainly.

His friend gave a brief smile and nodded. "No problem. I'll talk to you later."

"Call as soon as you can." Miroku said, though still hesitant, and pulled to raven haired girl up to her feet and started leading her down the hallways. Mrs. Asagi, the nurse and Inuyasha went the opposite way.

Awkward silence followed. He didn't exactly know what to say. They managed to turn the corner before something made him stop.

She burst into tears.

"Ooh." Miroku's face fell. "Don't cry!"

Now he really did feel like flinging himself out of the window. What the crap? He had absolutely no idea how to deal with bawling people, especially when they're girls. Give him girls slapping him in the face or kneeing him in the gut, but never, ever crying ones.

"I can't believe this!" Kagome sobbed, wiping at her eyes with the long sleeves she wore. "I got him sick and then broke his arm! I'm a walking plague, Miroku!"

Miroku gulped multiple times before managing to come up with something to say. "It's not your fault any of those things happened, Higurashi," he said soothingly and desperately. "And he's not even that hurt. He's going to be fine in a few days!"

Should he hug her? Put an arm around her shoulder? Or is that a little too familiar? He couldn't even hold Sango's hand.

"Um…" he raked his brain for something to say. "Do you want some cookies?"

He didn't even have _any_ for gosh's sakes. What is up with his mouth? It's not connecting properly with his brain. His neurotransmitters have got to start kicking in sometime soon before anymore crap gets out of his mouth.

She shook her head and sank down near a corner.

Miroku flinched. What to do now?

* * *

"Sango, Sango, Sango!" Koga shouted desperately, halting after running for five minutes. "STOP!"

"I am going to shove this down your throat, Ookami," she said, waving a wet mop she presumably got from the closet. "Tell me what's going on or I swear I'll do it. You know I would."

"Nothing happened!" his voice cracked uncertainly, backing up against a wall. "It was just a freak accident! The lock wouldn't turn!"

Her brown eyes narrowed like daggers. "Cut the bull," she warned, shoving the mop closer to his face.

"Why won't you believe me?" he growled.

"Because you're lying to me!" Sango yelled back. "I'm going to ask again, what are you and your friends doing to-"

"Don't cry, Higurashi." They both turned to the sound of the voice. Koga's jaw dropped in realization that it was Miroku speaking. Sango's grip tightened on the mop. There in front of him was Kagome, wiping her face on the sleeve of her uniform.

Koga's eyes slid over to Sango, who was poised to freakin' jump at Miroku like a jaguar and rip out his intestines.

'_Oh, boy.'_

* * *

"Miroku!" He heard Koga shout behind him. Before he managed to turn around completely, the violet eyed boy felt something collide with his gut that made him fly back.

* * *

Sango was in total rage mode.

She was locked in a closet full of dingy mops and buckets, stepped on said bucket and collided against shelves full of dirty towels, and then she saw her best friend crying in front of Miroku Houshi. Originally, she was planning on socking Koga in the face, but instead, she opted to go for her good for nothing suitor instead.

"What did you do to her, you douche?" With every word, she shook Miroku's shirt vehemently. "Why is she _crying_? And why did you and your friends LOCK ME INSIDE THE JANITOR'S CLOSET?"

"Sango, hold it!" Kagome placed a hand on her arm. "What are you doing?"

She paused. "Why were you in a janitor's closet?"

"He pushed me in," the brunette deadpanned, pointing over at Koga, who was jogging over to them quickly. "And it's got something to do with _you_." She hissed to Miroku, evil aura blazing and all.

"Let him go," Kagome said. "He didn't do anything to me."

"Don't try and protect him," she reprimanded her friend gently, then turned to the boy again, nearly unconscious. "What the heck happened here? You look like your cat just died."

"It wasn't his fault, I promise. I was just having a moment," she answered quietly while she gnawed at her cheek.

"What made you have a moment?" Sango's voiced raised.

"Yasha got hurt," Miroku mumbled weakly. "Fell down the stairs."

"What?" Sango's eyes widened, incredulous. "Why?"

"Well, _I _fell," Kagome replied for him. "But he caught me, then _he_ lost his balance and kinda cushioned me and everything."

Kagome's eyes started getting misty again.

Koga caught up with them and held out his hands. "I'm sorry! I tried stopping her but I. just. couldn't…"

"Shut up, good for nothing," Sango snapped.

The boy groaned exasperatedly. "I already told you that the door was locked! I had to get the custodian!"

She shook her head at him, disgusted, and turned her gaze back to her best friend. "So he, like, saved you?"

"Who saved you?" Koga's silver eyes narrowed as he assessed what's before him, Kagome's tear stained face and Sango holding Miroku in a deadlock. "Sango's not really going to kill Miroku, Higurashi. Maybe beat him up, but that's not worth crying over."

"She's not crying over that," Miroku said. "Inuyasha fell down the stairs catching her and now he's injured."

"Inuyasha fell?" Koga repeated in disbelief. "He fell? _Fell_?"

"Yes, I think we've established the fact that he did, in fact, fall down the stairs," Sango said dryly.

Miroku plopped down the floor as Sango let go of his shirt and stood up. "He's in the school clinic right now. I think he might be going to the hospital though."

Koga was still panicking. "Is he okay? Does he have any serious brain issues?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Sango couldn't help but retorting.

"As far as we can tell," Miroku said, "he's fine. Inuyasha still looked like he was sane."

Koga sank down to the floor. "Woah…"

* * *

"It's a sprain, no biggie," Inuyasha explained as he got in the car. "I hate hospitals, don't you just hate hospitals?"

After his inspection at the hospital, Inuyasha was given the day off to recuperate. Mrs. Takahashi was working; his brother was too, so Rin was the only person available on short notice to drive him home.

Rin raised a brow and glanced over at his disheveled appearance. "Just wait until your mom sees you. Maybe she'll be the one who finishes the job."

"She won't," he said confidently, though inside he felt that his mom was going to do something worse than kill him. "It happened because I saved someone's life."

Rin sighed again, louder, and bumped her forehead against the steering wheel. "What do you do at school, Inuyasha? Don't tell me that it's normal for your classmates to carry guns too."

"No," he shook his head. "It was just bad timing."

Inuyasha paused. "But, either way, if I didn't catch her, then she would've gotten a lot worse injuries than these, Rin."

"I know, I know, you stupid guy with stupid hero complex," she said, and then rolled her eyes. "Just take care of yourself! Do you have any idea how scared I got when I got a call from your school saying that you were in the emergency room? I think I scared off more than half of my customers with my screaming, and I'm pretty sure I also blacked out before managing to get to the car."

Inuyasha looked down guiltily. "I'm really sorry."

She tried to maintain her frowning expression, but failed. Being angry for more than five minutes was definitely no in her nature. Her brother in law looked too much like a puppy. And who can stay mad at a puppy for long? Finally, she settled for swatting his head affectionately before saying, "Do you want to grab some fries before we head home?"

* * *

Kagome unclenched her jaw. The hamburger and potatoes that lay before her remained untouched and was rapidly becoming cooler by the second. She remained glaring at the table.

Sango tsk-ed for the fifth time and continued tapping the table with her nails. She knew that Kagome was in the process of wanting to say anything.

Finally she spoke up, "Do you think I should bring him something?"

"I dunno," Sango shrugged noncommittally while leaning her head against her hand. "Do you think you should?"

"If I knew what I should be doing, then I wouldn't ask," Kagome grunted, then exhaled guiltily. "I'm sorry I snapped. It's been a really bad day so far, you know?"

The brunette grinned slightly. "Yep, I know. It's alright."

"Okay, so I really do think it's for the best for me to at least visit his house and say thank you. That's the polite thing to do."

"If that's what you think you should do, then yeah." Sango nodded in approval. "You can catch a ride with Miroku and Koga. They said they were going, weren't they?"

"No," she said hastily. "I don't want them to be there when I say it, I'll feel stupid."

"You're just saying 'thank you', Kagome, why would you feel dumb?"

Kagome pursed her lips in annoyance. "I don't know, I'm just weird like that." Her eyes turned pleading. "Do you mind driving me over there immediately after school? The two of them said that they were going to Taco bell and KFC first, so they won't be there for a little while. Please, please, please, Sango? I'll buy you ice cream."

That pretty much sealed the deal.

* * *

"Are you good?" Rin placed a hand on the doorknob while looking at her brother, who was sitting on the couch sipping juice carefully.

"Yeah, thanks," Inuyasha waved his glass as a sign of agreement. "I'll be okay."

"Alllriiigghht," she said, slow and nervous. "Cookies are heating up in the oven. You know what number to call. I'll close the shop earlier today and come back here, but I'm pretty sure you're mom's going to be home by then. And please, don't kill yourself while I'm gone."

"I don't think I'll be able to do any bodily harm by watching some television," he grinned cheekily.

"Judging from your daily life, I have a hard time believing that," Rin retorted. She smiled slightly and waved before locking the door.

* * *

"I can do this," Kagome repeated her mantra for the umpteenth time. Her hands were clenched so tightly that tiny crescents were already forming on her palms.

Sango groaned. "We've been sitting here for five minutes already. Are you going in or not?"

"I'm just trying to psych myself up for it," she answered, pulling at the door handle to open the car. "Thanks for bringing me here, Sango."

"No problem," she said. "I won't be able to pick you up 'cause I have practice though."

"I can walk, it's alright." Kagome said. "Your ice cream will be awaiting you tomorrow at lunch time."

Sango laughed. "See ya tomorrow."

Kagome watched her friend drive away before proceeding down the stone path. The Takahashi home was… big. Compared to this, her home was a shanty. And old, worn and incredibly shabby shanti. The lawn looked more sophisticated than her entire house. It had towering bamboos, more flowers than she could possibly count, a mini koi pond and looked like a professional was hired to make it look like a house out of a Martha Stewart magazine. Or maybe they had the lady herself do all the work.

She felt oddly intimidated.

Kagome pressed the door bell twice and waited patiently for it to open.

* * *

AN: I haven't updated in a looooong time. Mostly due to school and writers block. Any break I get, I usually take a nap XD.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading, and I hope the next one would write out itself quicker.

R&R


End file.
